Week 5: Cultural Paradigms

Shifting My Perceptions

In the book Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It, David Fleming writes: “Forward movement is not helpful if what is needed is a change of direction.” So true!

There are many times in my life when moving forward couldn’t happen until I moved or shifted in another direction. Synonyms that describe ‘shift’ include swerve, veer, change position, remove and rearrange. I hope that as a person, teacher, and daughter of God I’ll be open to doing a little swerving and veering throughout my life in order to change my perceptions. I also hope to be careful about how I create reality. Am I allowing my reality to be determined by society or my need to ‘fit in’? How do I remain open to changing my views of the world?

Insights Gained from Another Culture

Several years ago, I lived in a remote village in Ethiopia for a summer. Before I arrived in the country, I believed the people would be vastly different from me. It didn’t take long, however, until I experienced a tremendous paradigm shift in how I perceived our two cultures and in what happiness looks like.

I realized those people were just like me. They had hopes and fears. They wanted more for their kids. They experienced pain and joy. They had neighbors and family. They swept their front porch, bought vegetables at the market and sought cover during afternoon rainstorms.

I sat one day in the home of a beautiful Ethiopian woman. She lived in a hut with a dirt floor that contained two chairs and two small cots. She invited my friend and me to sit on the chairs while she sat on the floor. She gave us bottles of Orange Crush which must have been a sacrifice for her, but she was happy to share them. As we talked, she seemed grateful, happy, and content despite her circumstances. I don’t want to diminish the suffering she may experience living in an underdeveloped country, but as I sat in a tiny African hut drinking a soda that day my perception of what happiness looks like shifted.

Gospel Perspectives

The adversary is brilliant at shifting our perceptions. He tries to limit our views or obscure them. He tempts us to see evil things as good and good things as evil. He confuses our reality by creating “false needs and false problems” (John Ivers, “Cultural Paradigms” Video). A scripture in 2 N 15:20 reads: “Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” I’m grateful for holy scriptures and modern-day prophets who help me recognize Satan’s false perceptions and teaches me, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell once taught “things as they really are.”

What paradigm shifts have you experienced from other cultures or from a gospel perspective?

How have you changed your perceptions in order to see “things as they really are”?