by Rick Traub
A man and his daughter are involved in a car accident and are rushed to the hospital. The doctor comes in, looks at the girl and exclaims, “I can’t operate on her. She’s my daughter!” How is this scenario possible?
If you are stumped by this riddle as I was, here’s a hint. You can discover the answer by expanding your point of view and exploring options, which at first glance might not seem apparent.
I love this story because it’s a fun way to explore how perspective affects experience. A narrow point of view invariably leads to narrow, limited experience, while larger perspective can lead one to explore numerous, perhaps infinite possibilities.
Regarding this story, my own narrow point of view prevented me from discovering the “obvious” solution. And I uncovered another facet of my limited viewpoint when I shared the riddle at dinner one night. My partner Mary’s nine-year old had the answer in about five seconds. “The doctor is the girl’s mother!” she exclaimed, to which my daughter added, “Yeah, and the nurse is a man!”
I was amused and somewhat embarrassed to notice that the belief “doctors are men” was at the core of my limited point of view. Although I had spent the better part of the day at the hospital, where most of the doctors were, in fact, men, I suspect that my belief was formed long before that day.
How wonderful it was to observe these girls at the dinner table. Unencumbered by my years of socialization and, dare I say, indoctrination, their points of view are fresh and expanded. They view their possibilities as unlimited.
Sometimes the dinner conversation revolves around, “What do I want to do when I grow up?” They feel they can do anything they choose, and they help me remember that I can too.The easiest way to change something is to change your viewpoint. This does not always result in a change in the world, but it will place you in the optimum position should you wish to make a change in the world.
— from ReSurfacing by Harry Palmer
Rick Traub, Maine
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