BIG WORLD? little world?

BIG DEAL? little deal?

Asking oneself if this is a big deal or a little deal is an easy and effective way to help keep things in check when approaching life’s problems. This approach, though, fails to take into account perspective.

For example, if I’m so enveloped in my own world that I don’t realize there’s a whole other world out there, what seems like a big deal in my world may actually not be a big deal at all. All too often, I encounter folks who are losing their ever-loving minds over something they don’t really need to be so upset about. I wish to God I could help them to see it’s really not that big of a deal. How, in the moment of their freak out, does one help them to gain that perspective? Is it better to just wait until later to try for that?

I feel like people are getting more and more absorbed into their own little worlds, to the detriment of the big world. Americans used to understand their little worlds existed within the context of the big world. It seems like anymore now folks want the big world to change for their little world. I am totally willing to accept my perspective may be off on this – it would be hypocritical not to be open to that. It just seems to be an underlying problem in a lot I encounter throughout my days.

I am a big fan of figuring out and working on the underlying problem instead of only addressing the visible symptoms of the problem. Taking care of symptoms is too short-term. Again, then, I find myself asking how to get people to see, appreciate, and respect a larger perspective, beyond their own “little” world?