Mary Daniels Brown is another practitioner I’ve run across as part of my Scoop.it curation of organizational storytelling. I am most intrigued by her work on narrative and perspective, as illustrated by these words from one of her blogs: “Each individual’s point of view is unique, and point of view shapes the stories people tell to themselves and to others about themselves and their relationships with their environment. The same event narrated from two different perspectives will produce two different stories.” I am thrilled Mary Daniels Brown is participating in this Q&A series, especially since she went above and beyond in responding to my questions. The Q&A will run over the next several days.
Bio: Mary Daniels Brown completed the course work, though not the 
dissertation, for a doctorate in English and American literature before changing gears and earning a Ph.D. in psychology. Her dissertation focused on narrative identity theory and life stories. She writes about literature at Notes in the Margin and about psychology at Change of Perspective.
Q&A with Mary Daniels Brown, Question 1:
Q: “Perspective” seems to be the centerpiece of your work and philosophy. Can you talk a bit about your “perspective on perspective”?
A: One day my husband and I were shopping at Target when two men got into a confrontation at the end of the aisle. I don’t know what started the argument, and I don’t remember at all what it was about, but they were gesturing and talking loudly at each other. I think we left the aisle before the dispute was resolved.
After we had checked out and were walking across the parking lot, my husband said, “What did you think of the man in the Hawaiian shirt?” “What man in the Hawaiian shirt?” I asked. My husband stopped walking and stared at me. “The man who was arguing with the other man,” he said. “I know you saw him.”
Yes, I had seen him arguing with the other fellow. But because I’m always interested in the ways people interact, I had been watching each man’s face and gestures as they argued back and forth. What the men were wearing was irrelevant to me. My husband, however, is always much better than I am at noticing physical details about his surroundings. He focused on the Hawaiian shirt, whereas I didn’t even notice it.
As this story indicates, the concept of perspective has both a literal and a metaphorical aspect. In the literal sense, we see an object differently when we change the place from which we view it. In the metaphorical sense, we all view the world from a perspective created by the intersection of our temperament and our unique set of personal experiences, values, and beliefs. And because we are all unique, we all see the world at least a little bit differently than everybody else sees it. This is why two people may have very different memories about the same event. No one’s perspective is necessarily better or more correct than anyone else’s. The two are simply different.
A Native American proverb advises us not to judge other people until we’ve walked a mile in their moccasins. This advice encourages us to at least try to see a situation or an issue from another person’s perspective before passing judgment or starting an argument. Even if we don’t agree with another person’s perspective, just trying to understand that perspective can make us wiser and more tolerant people. And the world could certainly use some more wise, tolerant people.