Besides Seinfeld (guaranteed winners), the movie Jaws is probably the other trivia night Doug and I could win in embarrassing fashion. There are many memorable lines from the movie -- think "You're gonna need a bigger boat" -- many of which are still well-known, loved, and used even 49 years later (Yes, folks. June 2025 will be FIFTY. YEARS. 🤯). However, a different, less-quoted line has always intrigued me. Spoken by Chief Brody as he defends why he lives on an island when he doesn't like the water. "It's only an island if you look at it from the water," he says.
The obvious understanding for the scene being that he's fine living on an island because he has no intention of going on the water. So it's easy to forget/ignore the fact that where he lives is surrounded by water. A kind of stick-your-head-in-the-sand mentality. Which works...for awhile. And then you have to go fight and kill a shark. And as Hooper points out, "...If we're looking for a shark we're not gonna find him on the land."
The deeper understanding, I think, is one of examining and challenging our own perspectives. It's a good reminder of how our viewpoint/opinion/feelings can change based on our perspective. Of why it’s important to make an effort to see something in a different way. Maybe to understand where someone else is coming from, or see where we are being misled or lied to, or where our own experiences or traumas have forced us into what seems like a corner when in fact there are open doors or even an escape hatch we can't see. To be willing, in the dark hush of the night when all other noises and voices and influences are quiet, to look at things from a different perspective when the conventional point of view just doesn't seem to be providing a satisfactory answer. Instead, the digging in of our heels, the polar opposite of this sort of honest examination, seems to be the way of the land nowadays.
In a world where we draw hard lines around our opinions, refusing to give an inch, we may do good to remember this blind spot. And, trust me, I say this from a place of failing in that, not succeeding. I constantly have to remind myself there is no harm in trying to see something from a different perspective. If I am afraid of this closer examination changing my mind, then maybe I need to reconsider whether I am really seeking the truth or not. Because there IS a truth. There IS a reality. There ARE facts. Examining something from another viewpoint can serve not only to assure us we are actually right or at least on the right track, but is also increases our empathy and understanding toward other people, allowing us the advantage of seeing it from their eyes. Yes, possibly exposing the flaws or misunderstandings they have, but also enabling us to have compassion as to why they have those flaws and to gain insight into how to help guide them toward the real truth, best outcome, or accurate perspective given the real facts. Trauma causes all kinds of blind spots. Desperation and fear do, too. And you know what? Ironically, even love does. And a further irony? We may discover during this authentic quest for perspective, that WE are the ones whose eyes are opened. WE are seeing the door where one wasn't there before. WE are seeing that the water isn't really that scary after all. (Unless, of course, there's a giant man-eating shark in the water.)
At the end of the day, "It's only an island if you look at it from the water" represents a CHOICE of perspective. We would all benefit by examining all perspectives, and to continue to do so periodically, in order to ensure our perspective is still the most accurate. To do this is to choose survival over giving up or giving in, it is to choose a healthy outlook over despair, and maybe most importantly to maintain hope, to choose to see the beautiful not the broken. We're all in this together. No matter how hard they try to convince us otherwise.
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