And we can never really see another's point of view until we adopt it.

When we willfully argue with another's perspective without taking the time to appreciate it, we are turning a blind eye to what we can't see.

Reminds me of an expression my grandmother used . . .

"You hear what you want to hear and you see what you want to see."

Many people don't want to see the other side of an issue because they are so invested in their own.

Perhaps their refusal to look is currently working for them. Conditions, like the weather, will change but, too often, their myopic strategy won't.

That's when we find ourselves in the familiar land of "Failure to Communicate."

The operative question we rhetorically ask ourselves is some form of, "Don't they get it?"

What WE don't get is they are looking from a different vantage point and seeing a whole different picture.

Reminds me of a story . . .

When I was 11 years old I was travelling in a car with my mother and her friend to the Jersey shore. They were looking for the Walt Whitman Bridge to take us out of Philly into New Jersey. The friend, who was driving, said, "I just saw the sign for the Walt Whitman Bridge." My mother said, "No, that sign said the Ben Franklin Bridge." An argument ensued as to what the sign read.

We pulled over to the side of the road where the heel digging continued and a trip to nowhere was about to begin. Each insisted they saw the sign they claimed to see. Thank God there was an 11 year old to issue an innocent suggestion: "Let's go back to where you saw the sign."

With that, the driver took us back to see the sign. A few minutes later we were approaching the intersection where the sign was, and both simultaneously said, "See, there's the sign!"

What neither saw was that there were two signs - one for the Walt Whitman Bridge and one for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, both on the same telephone pole right next to each other.

If we take the time to look, we can go more than one way on a two-way street.

If you truly want to communicate with another, it's productive to make an effort to see things through their eyes otherwise you'll stay in the dark and wonder why.

It's a lot easier to agree when you see what someone else sees. If you dismiss it out of hand, you will never grasp their point of view.

So here's a travel tip from an 11 year old: If you're lost, travelling around in a hot car on a summer's day and you want to get to the beach, take the time to see ALL the signs.

All the best,

John