What Are Your Goggles?

There is a country western song entitled "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On". It is about how drinking too much beer affects Billy's perception of reality around him.

This set me thinking about the goggles that I wear or have worn throughout my life. The various viewpoints I've held that have affected the way that I perceived life, people, relationships, the world, etc.

When I served as a priest, I viewed things through the goggles of the Catholic Church. People, relationships, lifestyles, finances, medical science, scripture, worship - everything was filtered through the teachings and stance of the Church. Whether I agreed with that viewpoint was not the issue. Only that there was that set of goggles which affected how I saw and related to reality around me.

As a nursing home administrator, I found that my goggles changed. There is life after/outside the perspective of the Church. Not that they were opposed to each other, or even in conflict. Only that now I saw things from the point of view of ministering to people who were nearing the end of their lives, or to the families of those folks, and doing it while observing the many State and Federal regulations involved. It was also to be done within the parameters of the company that hired me in such a way as to make a profit. It was a different set of realities, and my goggles changed accordingly.

Now as I find myself in the automotive industry, another set of goggles is available to me. I am especially aware of those goggles because the owner/boss that I am working with has been in this industry for 40+ years. Of necessity, he eats, drinks, sleeps and lives automobiles, their sales, trades and repairs. Reality seen through his eyes has a definite slant or perspective.

As I reflect on the various goggles that I have worn (and there are many other smaller sets that I have not mentioned), I have come to two conclusions. First of all, I see the importance of not identifying myself with the goggles at any time. I am not any one of the various viewpoints that I lived through in my lifetime. These are simply perspectives on reality that I carried for a time.

Secondly, no set of goggles is the same as the reality that they perceive. Reality is set apart from any particular viewpoint or filter through which it is viewed. In other words, the Catholic viewpoint, the nursing home viewpoint, the auto dealer viewpoint is just that -- a perception of reality that is both insightful and distorting at the same time. Insightful because it gives a deeper perception into life; but distorting because it is limited to the narrow confines of this one perspective.

I am reminded of the story of the four blind men trying to describe an elephant. The one holding the tail described it as similar to a rope. With his arms around a leg, the second man waxed eloquent comparing the elephant to a tree. The third man, with his hands around the trunk, assured the others that the beast was like a fire hose. Finally, the fourth man, taking hold of the ear, contended that the animal was like a large, tough leaf. All were right, but not completely; all were also wrong, but not totally.

No matter what goggles we wear, it is important for us to realize the limitations as well as the benefits of our perspective. That is especially true where God, faith and church are concerned. God is bigger than any of our perceptions. God is distinct from all of our views. What freedom there is in knowing that.

What are your goggles? How do they help/hinder you?