It's All a Matter of Perspective

Don't you remember your parents telling you that what you saw was a matter of how you looked at it?  Mine sure did.  Did you see the glass half empty or half full?  Was it a flat tire or an ability to learn how to change a tire?  This week, here in Maryland, there's been a lot of talk about perspective.  You see, we had an earthquake - 5.8 on the Richter Scale.  For everyone who lives out West, that's a big nothing; for those of us here, it was massive.  The last time an earthquake even approached that intensity out here was over 100 years ago.  We were scared, we didn't know what to do, and it felt unsettling.  Now, we're waiting for Hurricane Irene, a category 3 storm.  Folks are freaking out up here - water and toilet paper flying off the shelves like there's no tomorrow.  Well, heck folks, I'm from coastal South Florida.  A category 3 when you're well inland is a nothing, a speed bump.
What does all this mean for those of us in the Trenches?  It's a teaching moment for us.  First, the reactions to these natural disasters teach us that, like the frog in the gradually heating pan of water, when you get used to something, it doesn't seem so bad.  We need to remember that when we're dealing with our domestic abuse clients and wondering why they stayed.  To them, it was a category 3 storm in Florida, not in Maryland.  We need to remember it also when our divorce clients overreact (at least it seems to us) to normal divorcing spouse bad behavior.  To us, it's business as usual; to them it's an earthquake in Maryland.
Second, just as the sun came up today, the day after the earthquake, and will come up the morning after the hurricane, even bad weather passes and the days are sunny again.  It's hard for our clients to remember this when all they feel is pain and turmoil.  Sometimes, we need to remind them and help them gain a little perspective.