Perspectives

After Dallas mentioned my-also-favorite story of the Eskimo miracle at the '54 Grey Cup in class today, I started to think about how important an individual's viewpoint is to the processing of an event. To young-version Preston Manning, a dream comeback in slow-motion proved to him that with enough fight, underdog's can and frequently do overcome the odds (an ideal that I'm sure helped him decide to be a politician). To other Edmonton fans, a short-lived burst of elation at their team's victory would have been the only effect of the game. To a Montreal fan, the message would have been more 'don't count your chickens until they hatch' etc etc, or to an Eskimo player, it could even represent the culmination of a lifetime of effort and sacrifice. Same field, same game, different impacts. Of course, there exists a common experience everyone shares; it just gets taken in a multitude of directions. So, the best way to envision history then becomes to garner a plethora of viewpoints, to paint the most complete picture possible, because even if you're there, a single person can only view the situation from a single angle.