Daughter-Father Dance Podcast
Bonus Episode: ‘Why’ We Produced This Show
TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Jenée Arthur: [VOICEOVER] In a world where we champion things that are hard or difficult, what if we could make it all more simple, easier? What if there's a way to break down the construct of “us” and “them”?

Look, we've all witnessed our country divided into overt opposition of ‘us and them’ for a long time. Now, in all actuality, the us/them narrative dates back centuries, but likely never more apparent than recently.

When COVID-19 took root, it created a unique worldwide unity (of sorts), like a puppy or a tiny infant entering a room of hostility. It was something we could all band together around… something that created compassion for our fellow humans, albeit for what seemed like only a brief moment.

Suddenly even that speck of unity became polarized.Maskers went up against non-maskers. Vaxxers attacked anti-vaxxers. Reality challenged conspiracy, and vice-a-versa.

Something became apparent to me. Division can be found—everywhere.

But division in its simplest form is really just differing perspective.

Now, before you jump all over that, bear with me as I explained.

My explanation of division simply being ‘differing perspective’ is with an analogy of a group of people viewing Michelangelo's statue of David in Florence, Italy for the very first time.

The man standing to David's anatomical right sees only the view of an arm and the lower portion of one of his legs; while the young woman standing in front of the Rome-facing iconic marble sculpture sees Michelangelo's creation in all its frontal glory. The man thinks to himself, “What's so great about this? This sculpture is a waste of marble.” While the young woman, being touched by the artist’s talent utters, “Whoa— such magnificence!”

They're both looking at the same statue, just from different perspectives.

Or, imagine a father and a daughter stepping outside their home during the start of a rainstorm.

The daughter walks onto the back porch looking to the north and sees a blackening sky with ominous clouds quickly approaching. Her father, exiting the front door looking south, sees a giant double rainbow and the sun emerging from the clouds in the distance.

They are both looking at the same sky yet from different perspectives.

This seems to be the thing we do with everything.

So, I decided to do an experiment with someone with whom my own difference of perspective has historically caused both animosity and anger, as well as compassion and connection…my dad.

He could be likened to the man who sees the statue of David as ridiculous— until I bring him to the side from which I'm viewing it, and he finally settles in to understanding what all the fuss is.

Or I'm that little girl who sees the sky and cries, “Daddy! Daddy! There's a horrible storm coming !”until Dad grabs me by the hand and walks me out the front door to see what he is witnessing.

You see— we all only perceive things from where we are standing.

But what if we shifted our position just enough to gain a different perspective to stand where those who are seeing things different than us are standing in order to better understand their position.

Even within these examples, one of us could have continued to see the statue of David as an ugly marble figure ,or witnessed the rainbow and still be scared to death of the approaching storm. But that's okay. It's just difference of perspective.

Join me and my dad for our first episode of Daughter-Father Dance on September 16th when we will demonstrate that division is optional— and maybe even prove that it's actually an illusion.

Division is Optional