Perspective

Perspective is a wonderful and terrible thing. It can change how we see things both physically and mentally. For example, I have awful perspective when I draw which is why the elephant in the above picture looks like Noo-Noo from the teletubbies on stilts. As another example, some people approach life from the perspective that everything revolves around them. This short poem is the soliloquy of a young man struggling with his own vanity. It was also partly inspired by a joke I recently read and shall now recount badly and slightly altered:

A farmer asks three mathematicians for advice on building a fence around his cows. He wants to use as little material as possible. The first mathematician suggests that they measure the length of each cow, line them up and build a long, low fence around them that way. The second suggests that they measure the height of each cow, stack them up and build a short, high fence around them. The third takes a very small piece of fencing, wraps it around himself and says ‘I declare myself to be on the outside’.

Perspective

Am I surrounded by all I can see
Or is everything else just surrounded by me?

That’s a real elephant. It’s just far away.