I recently had a weird experience. During a church service I walked past a classroom full of PreK students drawing and coloring rainbows. It blew my mind...that is incorrect. I found it normal for small children to be coloring rainbows. The weird happened when the teacher and helper for the class didn't know the correct order of colors for the rainbow. For some reason I thought this was common knowledge, like which hand is your right hand or how to tie your shoes. As I brought this situation up in several more conversations throughout my day, I was continually surprised to find close to half of everyone I talked to weren't sure about the colors either. I quickly learned that there are two kinds of people in the world: those that know "R.O.Y.G.B.I.V.", and those that do not.
My reality of the world I live in came crashing down around me. What I thought to be a baseline of knowledge and information ended up to be different than I'd expected. Fortunately, there have been no known catastrophes in the wake of my day of realization. As much as this particular situation has had no real impact on my life, the underlying principle has huge ramifications for all of us. It has nothing to do with light refracted by water and everything to do with making assumptions and expectations. Not every parent is like you. Not every spouse is like you. Not everyone has your perspective on education, God, friends, sports, or your insatiable desire for every Apple product on the market. The expectations you bring into every type of relationship has an impact on it. Typically, my uncommunicated expectations within my marriage ends with me giving Amy flowers, because once again I've proven how self-consumed I am and I've learned "happy wife happy life". Our assumptions and expectations, more often than not, give evidence to our knee-jerk reaction to think of ourselves first and others with very little depth.
To sum it all up, it would benefit everyone if we periodically made a point to take a look outside of our own perspective. Truth is truth regardless of perspective, but our ability to communicate those truths is dependent on our ability to speak within someone else's perspective. I think there is a cliche that says basically the same thing, it talks about "miles" and "their shoes". Finally, just remember: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (technically indigo and violet make up purple).
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Start it off.
I've never blogged before. I've wanted to. I've thought about what I would say, but until now I've been blogless. To be honest, I'm not even sure I like my title but my selfish ambition beat out my patience for creativity. It sounds like a Lord of the Rings reference, but I can assure you that was not my intention. I only named it such because I am "here" and someday I'd like to be "there", which I think is a common thread we can all connect to.
I'd like to begin by setting the parameters on what this blog will be like. I don't know, because like I said I've never done this before. I do know why I started this now. The other day one of my heroes (Jon Acuff) asked via twitter what our worst job was and his favorite response would get a copy of his latest book. On my way out of cell service I tweeted a last ditch effort. I had no thought that I would win, only that I had experienced a bad job that could be ranked high on the "worst job ever" scale.
I tweeted. It had the words: scoop, poop, and 10,000 parakeets; also that I now hate birds. There was a medium to large wave of shock and confusion that washed over me when Jon Acuff himself actually retweeted with a comment, saying he didn't even know parakeet farms existed. That's always a great leadoff into the world of large-scale social media, "What should my first words be about? I think poop is always an appropriate starting point. That's a great idea I just had!! Poop it is." Obviously, I didn't expect any response but it happened regardless. I have not been contacted to know if I won the contest or not, but I did come away with some clarity and a learned lesson. I want to be more focused on what I communicate before 63,000 people read about me scooping poop. This experience has definitely been a highlight of mine, and one that I hope to replace with another that doesn't include excrement of any kind.
The point of this first blog is that we all have a voice. It might seem small, but in the right moments with the right audience it can become much larger than we ever expected it to be. I want my words to count.
One of the standards I've learned is to always leave a place in better shape than when you first got there. I've carried that into the realm of people, I want to leave them in a better place than when I first interacted with them. That's what this blog will be about: me trying to benefit you with what I've learned from my own successes and failures...and other non-pass/fail types of situations. It will be the documented attempt to get from "here" to "there".
My dog is currently trying to chew up some garbage as if it were a special toy I brought home for her, so I must go before she decides what else nearby might be a trash-toy. Happy Independence Day!!
I'd like to begin by setting the parameters on what this blog will be like. I don't know, because like I said I've never done this before. I do know why I started this now. The other day one of my heroes (Jon Acuff) asked via twitter what our worst job was and his favorite response would get a copy of his latest book. On my way out of cell service I tweeted a last ditch effort. I had no thought that I would win, only that I had experienced a bad job that could be ranked high on the "worst job ever" scale.
I tweeted. It had the words: scoop, poop, and 10,000 parakeets; also that I now hate birds. There was a medium to large wave of shock and confusion that washed over me when Jon Acuff himself actually retweeted with a comment, saying he didn't even know parakeet farms existed. That's always a great leadoff into the world of large-scale social media, "What should my first words be about? I think poop is always an appropriate starting point. That's a great idea I just had!! Poop it is." Obviously, I didn't expect any response but it happened regardless. I have not been contacted to know if I won the contest or not, but I did come away with some clarity and a learned lesson. I want to be more focused on what I communicate before 63,000 people read about me scooping poop. This experience has definitely been a highlight of mine, and one that I hope to replace with another that doesn't include excrement of any kind.
The point of this first blog is that we all have a voice. It might seem small, but in the right moments with the right audience it can become much larger than we ever expected it to be. I want my words to count.
One of the standards I've learned is to always leave a place in better shape than when you first got there. I've carried that into the realm of people, I want to leave them in a better place than when I first interacted with them. That's what this blog will be about: me trying to benefit you with what I've learned from my own successes and failures...and other non-pass/fail types of situations. It will be the documented attempt to get from "here" to "there".
My dog is currently trying to chew up some garbage as if it were a special toy I brought home for her, so I must go before she decides what else nearby might be a trash-toy. Happy Independence Day!!
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