Nothing In This Life Is Absolute

This is not at all related to Albert Einstein's famous law but it is similarly intriguing.

Nothing in this life is absolute. Everything is relative to the person who sees and judges it according to his own perspective. Each individual perspective is based on several factors like, biases, preferences, and experiences with that particular object or thing.

Take for example color: Have you ever wondered why people have special preferences to particular colors? Why is it that some color combinations are fine with others while others find the same color combinations nauseating? Is it possible these happen because people are not really seeing the same colors?

For example, the color "blue". Could it be that the hue you see which you have been calling "blue" all your life may be the same hue somebody else sees and calls it "red", or "green", or "yellow" all his life, too? The hue you find beautiful and call it "green" is the same beautiful hue somebody else has been naming "blue" since birth? The beautiful color both you and someone else see and find beautiful is the same hue but you call it differently. Who is to judge? The judge himself may find the same hue beautiful but calls if by other name still. So, the same hue is the favorite colors of many but each one calls it by other name.

Religion: Most religions believe in the same things, ideas, or concepts such as a creator and its creations, life after death that could be spent either in hell as punishments for wrongdoings or sins while on this life, or heaven and nirvana as rewards to those who do good deeds while still on earth, etc. However, different terms are used to explain the same things depending on the point of view of its practitioners or believers.

Religion is likened to the six blind men as described by John Godfrey Saxe's famous poem, "The Blind Men and the Elephant", who had their own and diverse notions of what an elephant was based on the parts of the elephant they touched.

Beliefs are described by their followers relative to each individual's experiences, preferences, biases, etc. We may all be worshipping the same god but is known by so many names by others. It could be that we are all partly right, but then partly wrong, who is to tell?

Beauty, it is said, depends on the eyes of the beholder. Some people believe that a milky white skin is beautiful while others insist that black is beautiful. There are those who think that various body paintings like tattoos enhance beauty while others consider these as blemishes. Many races in Africa or the Far East consider long dangling pierced ears are a thing of beauty which people on the other side of the world see these weird.

Therefore, we may conclude that nothing in this life is absolute, everything is relative to something else. Keeping this mind, we become respectful of other people's opinion thus avoiding unnecessary frictions in our day-to-day dealings with our fellowmen.

May PEACE be upon us all!

Let us promote peaceful co-existence by respecting other people's opinions. Remember that in this life, no one is absolutely right nor wrong.