It’s funny how we are sometimes inspired. Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation with someone and asked “how did we get off talking about this?”, and then you back track through what I like to call “rabbit trails” of conversation to see just where you took that turn that ended you here.
A few days ago I was looking going through my friends’ pages on myspace catching up and seeing who was up to what. Well I came across the old song (on a page) by Tom Petty “You don’t know how it feels” (I assume this is the title). I’m not real found of the song simply because of the whole joint aspect but I do like the song, if that makes any sense. Anyways (rabbit trail LOL) when I heard the line “you don’t know how it feels to be me” it made my mind begin to “run”, which leads me to my blog!
If you watch any news, Fox News is a favorite at our house by the way (yet another rabbit trail), then you have heard all about Barack Obama and this whole race issue with his pastor Rev. Wright. My point really has nothing to do with politics, race, or the Democratic party so all of my liberal readers please don’t automatically shut me out. It’s back to the song “you don’t know how it feels to be me”.
Several years ago I enrolled (and completed by the way, another rabbit trail) in a leadership/coaching clinic. This was a great learning experience for me. Almost every time I am asked for advice and/or counseling I find that I pull most of my knowledge for the situation from that clinic. I learned all about personality profiles, paradigms and communication.
I still remember the analogy used to convey paradigms. Our speaker told us that if you set down to program a computer and told that computer that 2+2=5 then that computer was innocently told/programmed incorrectly. Its very foundation is ultimately distorted and wrong. You could argue all day with that computer that 2+2=4 but that computer BELIEVES differently, that is not what it was taught/programmed from its “birth”.
There has to be a “paradigm shift” a change in the programming/thinking. If we were computers believing that 2+2=4 then we will never know what it is like to believe that it equals 5. How could we, we weren’t programmed that way.
Which once again brings me back to Tom and “you don’t know how it feels to be me”, it’s true, YOU DON’T. Just like I don’t know how it feels to be you. I will never know how it feels to be a man, a person of color, a post abortive woman etc. Just as many of you will never know how it is to be a woman, Caucasian, child epileptic, from a divorced home, mother of a still born, and wife of a minister.
We all have a different story. That is what makes this world so wonderful. Surely we can find a common ground, chose to see the world through another’s eyes. I do believe in absolutes, please don’t get me wrong, but even in that I believe that the “greatest of these is love” 1 Cor. 13:13
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Rabbit Trails
Posted by One Salty Gal.... at 9:38 PM
Labels: Faith, Salty Knowledge
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1 comments:
Great entry! It is interesting to think about perception. I've had a blog in mind for days, mostly inspired by you, and this entry just adds to it. I think the most important thing to remember that though people may think differently or come from different backgrounds that neither necessarily has to be "wrong." Maybe you can look at it as one person was taught that 2+2=4 and the other is taught that 1+3=4. They're both right but just went about it in different ways.
I'm not sure what your position is about Barack. As you know, I've been a supporter for almost 4 years now. I really do hope that FOX isn't the ONLY source for news, as it is (admittedly by their own anchors) biased. My problem with them is the way they often skew facts or simply report incorrect information. Retractions, apologies, and corrections are a rarity on FOX, which I don't think is good business. I'm an MSNBC person myself, but I know that their pundit shows (like my hero Olbermann) are biased. That's why I go to the newspaper and other online sources for news.
Yes, the situation with Rev. Wright has been a challenge for Obama. The things the Reverend said were filled with anger and didn't seem very Christian. However, I feel the same about many of the other pastors who stand by other candidates after preaching messages of intolerance, but we don't see them in the news. I don't think a candidate should be elected on the basis of religion or on the basis of his church. I hope that people have seen through this last administration that even though one claims to be a Christian, it doesn't mean he'll live up to that message.
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