Several decades ago a chain of grocery stores on the east coast did a promotion. For every so many dollars of groceries purchased the customer could buy an educational book at a great discount. Now all this little Pacific Northwest girl knew about it was that every few months Grandma would send some wonderful book full of pictures and information. This was back in the day when encyclopedias were still very much a viable market. First came the bright grey science encyclopedias full of the latest trends in science and tech. Then came the brilliant yellow children's books. They were full of numbers and letters and colors and shapes. Between these were fascinating little stories about sweaters that were suddenly too small and the importance of recycling. On those cardboard pages my siblings and I learned to read and internalized various life lessons.
One that really stuck with me was a story about two friends who were painting. (Painting was awesome and all the kids at the play group couldn't wait to use the easel and the watercolors and these friends each had their own! So awesome.) But the first friend asks the second what the second was painting. The conversation went back and forth as the second friend described what was going on the canvas and the first agreed that that was wonderful and copied the pipe, glasses, and truck (which was very much cheating and little me scolded the first friend roundly). But the point of the story was that even using the same instructions the two friends came up with two very different picture. One was calmly logical and practical and one was whimsical and silly. Because they were very different and that was a good thing.
It was a good first lesson on personal perspective and "The Lab" youtube channel took it to the next level in this awesome video.
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