A Matter of Perspective

There are dates in our lives that are indelibly etched into our consciousness. Some that overwhelm us with joy, and others that cripple us with grief, and many emotions in between. In much the same way that music plays a soundtrack to our lives, there are dates that live forever inside us and live on after us.
Many of us will remember the ongoing email that circulated a few years back which talked about things like the worth of a basketball in my hands (about $10), and the worth of that same ball in Michael Jordan's hands (several million dollars); the worth of a few fish and loaves in my hands (a few fish sandwiches), and the same in the hands of God (meals for thousands). The email's message was, that it's all a matter of perspective.
Can you remember exactly what you were doing on September 11, 2001, January 16, 1991, July 20, 1969, November 22, 1963, April 4, 1968, February 3, 1959, June 6, 1944, December 7, 1941, November 27, 1998? Some of these dates, some of us will remember vividly. And for some of them, we may not have even been born. For at least one of them, many of you will draw a complete blank. And then, there are those which we only recognize from our history books or parents' and grandparents' recollections.
The Normandy Invasion, the King Assassination, the Kennedy Assassination, Pearl Harbor attacks, World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Operation Desert Storm, the day my nephew was born, the day that music died, the day man set foot on the moon. I'll leave it to you to match the dates with their respective events, but whatever any of these dates mean or don't mean to you, it's a matter of your own perspective. On some of these dates, our faith was tested and shaken, on others it was renewed, and some of us are still trying to regain the equilibrium we once had preceding these dates and the events that marked them.
I'm sure that changing perspectives is a matter of personal experience, as much as the value and importance of people, places, things and events are a matter of perspective. There are so many jolting dates in my past, present and future that cannot ever be fully explored or explained, but these are the dates that have shaped and will shape me and my values. I expect that we all have such dates. The U.S. Marine Corps has a slogan that says, "The Change is Forever". Well, I suppose it's a matter of perspective, isn't it?