There are so many ways to say what one means. Among them is the reply I heard today when I asked of a Floridian acquaintance whether, on the heels of a recent technological misfire, I might take the liberty of reactivating her subscription to my Substack account. She said, “I enjoy reading your perspective.” This, I think you’ll agree, readily falls within the scope of democratic, diplomatic and enigmatic. Yet while there is ample room for obfuscation and misinterpretation, I have chosen instead to adopt what I believe to be the more fruitful pattern of conclusion; namely, to crawl to the extent of accepting the equivocation once offered. And not to press the point to inalterable tedium.

In all fairness, I had telephoned my colleague today without prior notification or warning. Accordingly it hardly affords a spacious platform for reasoned thoughtfulness (if indeed I were to have preferred the same). I think however that, in its seemingly hesitant or ambivalent way, it stands as a warning itself to tread lightly. This is particularly so when I am a Canadian and she is an American; by which I mean, I recognize that it borders on inopportune for the native of one country to comment other than enquiringly upon the affairs of the native of another. As it happens, my frequency with American residency has provoked more than an idle interest in American political affairs.  Consequently I at times speak out of turn about the matters pertinent to the American citizen alone.  Naturally I and millions of others worldwide dismiss this invasion of privacy by accounting that American political affairs are global public fodder.  And while there is some truth to the universality, nonetheless on the collegial level of enquiry I believe it is better for others to keep their nose out of others’ business.  This is so not only by virtue of some Emily Post etiquette but rather simply to avoid contaminating what is otherwise irrelevant to currency of a relationship.

Philosophically there is a more obvious peril wrought by perspective; and, that is the  possibility that the advocate hasn’t a clue about what he or she is talking. We are presumptuous to presume any legitimacy whatsoever. It requires mere milliseconds of time or millimetres of space to isolate one person from another’s world. It amounts to an inductive leap to postulate that one understands another.  We do not. We may be sympathetic but coddling and commiserating do not amount to insight. My ultimate definition of the issue is accordingly the preservation of boundaries.

If by chance one’s perspective were confined to what is truly pertinent to one’s private affairs, then the details are tolerable. More often that not however it is far easier to project upon the meaning of another’s affairs than to insinuate with equal precision the particulars of one’s own. Indeed by further comparison I readily wager that most of us unwittingly harbours a sheltered conveyance of our innermost thoughts. Foremost it is human nature to disturb the clarity of one’s mind for purely protective purposes (reality is besides such a vulgar translation); and, governed as most of us is by unimaginable fiction, it would transgress the limits of sustainability to venture an expression of exactitude.

In the result the advancement of a perspective is by any production a dangerous business. I am thus reminded of my late father’s adage, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” This posture though tactful eliminates possibility of both academic and logical investigation. Perhaps it is my inherent argumentative nature or possibly conviction of my own unqualified propriety which hastens me to share my perspective with others. I have sought to ameliorate the dredging by distinguishing it as a cathartic relief from whatever contaminates me. Therefore you will appreciate my opening reluctance to confront my American confrère with the initial inquisition relative my “musings” (as another of my American friends in Maine has lately characterized my ramblings).  As I said, truth is such a coarse subject!