By Jeff Burbrink
Ag & Natural Resources Extension Educator, Purdue Extension LaGrange County

Jeff Burbrink

LAGRANGE — I read a story this week about an astronaut, Ron Garan, who changed his view of the world during his trip to the International Space Station. From 250 miles up, the world he describes is a smaller, more fragile place than what his previous perspective was.

I think we all understand how looking at things from a different angle or perspective can alter your view. That is one reason drones and GPS based soil tests of farm fields have become valuable tools in agriculture. An aerial view from 400 feet, or the patterns revealed by a grid of pH, phosphorus or potassium tests can give insight you cannot get standing in a field.

You do not always need to leave the ground to get a new perspective. I have a few farmer friends who travel to other countries on mission trips in the winter. They often return home with a refreshed sense of who they are, what is important to them, and a different way of looking at the world in general. Another farmer I know recently traveled to a conference in Iowa, where he picked up a few new ideas.

From my own perspective, the move I made professionally to LaGrange County after 37 years in Elkhart County has given me a different view of the world I would not have otherwise. Refreshing and different, neither good or bad. The change forces me to use parts of my brain I may have put in idle for a while.

Garan described a view where you could rarely see the boundaries between one country and the next. Where he could see the boundary, it was often due to fortifications due to tensions, such as along the India-Pakistani border. For the most part, the 195 countries in the world are virtually indistinguishable from 250 miles up. For some space travelers, the experience is a very spiritual one, leading to changes in careers and a feeling of destiny.

The term used by doctors to describe the change in perspective is called the Overview Effect. It does not matter which country of origin the astronaut is from, the phenomena cuts across all cultures and backgrounds. Many space veterans describe a feeling of being a citizen of the world, and a realization that effects such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves and man-made issues like rising global temperatures can have a profound that cross borders.

While change for the sake of change seems unfruitful, I think we all can benefit from an occasional change in scenery and perspective. Sometimes a change in perspective is what you need to see the light. As Whitney Wolfe Herd was quoted, “Life is about perspective and how you look at something… ultimately, you have to zoom out.”

Like a photographer-friend once told me: You often cannot change the scene, but you can change your angle, and you can change your lens.