A few days ago, I had a thought about "perceived realities" while waiting at a traffic light. I was in the left-turn lane, and as I glanced at the light I saw that it had turned yellow. My mind immediately went into decision mode as I looked ahead to see if the cars coming the opposite direction were going to slow down and let me turn through the yellow or if I'd have to wait. Before I'd made a decision, I looked back at the light and realized that it hadn't turned solid yellow, but was still flashing. My brief glance had seen only a solid yellow and not realized that it was still in the flashing stage. I had more time.
This got me thinking about how or if perspective really does shape reality. From the perspective of that quick glance, the light was in my mind a solid yellow. It was the reality that I began to act on. But are we really justified in calling that "reality," when there are external truths that ultimately denied it? Two people look at a traffic light; one looks long enough to see the yellow arrow flash, one sees only the solid light. Both act based on their perceptions. But in reality, the light did flash. Yes, we can create "perceived realities," but calling these individual things "truth" or "reality" alone is, I think, inaccurate. There is one shared reality, a foundation of truth that we can arrive at if we look long enough. More often than not, it requires us to not center our own experience but step outside of ourselves, consider the issue from multiple facets (especially those that we naturally shy away from), and seek for Truth.