Standing above the Fray

 The 20th century German novelist, Alfred Döblin, wrote, "Those who stand above things can see far, but not precisely" (or "in detail" - the translation is difficult).

I think that what he meant was, if we are not personally involved in a situation, it is easy to understand the shape of it, and perhaps the main factors, but not the small details. 

There is another saying, about "not being able to see the wood for the trees", which means exactly the opposite. This accusation was levied at me once, more than 30 years ago, when I had written the first draft of my MPhil thesis, about the first seventy years' history of the Chartered Institute of Transport, for which I then worked. To compile this first draft, I had painstakingly gone through seventy years' worth of committee minutes and every issue of the Institute's Journal, and interviewed every living President, and had discovered a mass of information, which I had grouped into ten chronological chapters, covering seven years each.

I had got so involved in small details of  "the things" that I was unable to see the broad brushstrokes of the changes which had happened over that time. I could describe the individual trees, but had no conception of what the entire wood looked like. So my mentor told me to stand back and re-write the whole thing thematically. 

Which I did. I stole an idea out of an early Chalet School  book and produced a history chart on a couple of enormous sheets of computer paper (the old kind with green lines across - only my older readers will remember it). Across the top, I put the seven themes I had chosen for my chapters, with the dates down the side. It took a couple of weeks to complete, but once I had done it, and stood back to look at it, I realised that I had summarised my whole thesis in a new, much clearer way.

Sometimes, it is important, even vital, to be cognisant of the small details of a situation, because if we don't know them, we are liable to make mistakes, which could hurt people. But at others, we only need to know the "executive summary". Impartiality can be useful, but sometimes, we need to stand up for what we believe in and take a stand.

I guess that the skill in life is knowing which approach to use, in which situation.