what does the sentence "put in perspective" mean?
REMINDER: NOT A TEACHER
(1) The happiest people in the world may be those people who have the ability
to put everything
in/into perspective.
(2) My dictionary tells me that "perspective" = to look at things closely.
(3) In other words, to have the ability to know
how important something really is.
(4) Mr. X is a bachelor. He has never married because he has not been able to find the
right woman. He has no family. He is rather lonely and knows that he will not have
loving children to care for him in his old age. But he does have a good job, good
health, good friends, and he lives in a free country. So he puts not having a family
into proper perspective. He thinks of the things that he
does have; he does not cry
because of the things he does NOT have.
(5) Mr. Y gets on a crowded bus. One rude person is using two seats (one for his
body and one for his packages). Mr. Y asks the rude person to move his packages.
The rude person refuses. Does Mr. Y start a fight? No, he doesn't. Mr. Y "looks
closely" at the situation. His goal is to go from point A to point B. His goal is NOT
to necessarily have a seat on the bus. (Maybe Mr. D would have hit the rude person;
then the police would come; then both Mr. D. and the rude person would have been in
big trouble. Why? Because Mr. D did not put things into perspective.)
(5) People who have the ability to put things into perspective are very
wise. (Please
check your first-language dictionary for the definition of "wise.")
(6) Life is full of disappointments. Can we learn to put everything into perspective?
That is the never-ending job that we have in this life.