Let us sit around my campfire.
I recently learned about relativity. Big term, I know, but it led to a major, eye-opening realization for me. At its core, relativity tells me that there is no single, absolute perspective. There is always more than one way to see everything in life, depending on where you stand, your experiences, your biases, desires, belief systems, name it.
An event can happen at the same time and yet become two entirely different experiences for two observers, and both can be right. The observer’s perspective shapes what they perceive as reality and how they make sense of the experience. Two people can walk away with wildly different feelings from the same moment, because they were never in the same spacetime to begin with.
We see things based on our own perspective, and we are quick to judge others through that lens. Today, you might judge someone for a decision they make. Five years later, you might judge that same person, for the same decision, very differently. What changed? Your perspective. Where you are in your spacetime. You are the same person, and yet not the same at all.
Relativity taught me that understanding isn’t about agreeing on one truth, but about asking where someone was standing when it happened. Sometimes, that understanding invites empathy. Sometimes, it asks me to pause and not invest emotionally. Sometimes, it allows me to acknowledge my own pain without gaslighting myself or rushing to judgment.
To try, at least, to see from where they stood.
But you need to understand that it is not an agreement. Perspective can be acknowledged without being absorbed. Empathy does not require self-betrayal. You can stand your ground, in your own reality. After all, you are not in the same spacetime anyway.
And Einstein might agree.
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