Every social situation is fraught with ambiguity, knee-deep in complication, hidden meanings, veiled power-struggles, passive-aggression and paranoid confusion. We seem perversely determined to make everything as difficult as possible.
That's Kate Fox, talking about English people in general in her book 'Watching The English'.
Sounds terrible, right?
I read that passage and thought how some teaching situations for staff, and probably more to the point, for students, are potentially pretty much like that.
Hey, we're all human, but it's exhausting for all involved.
I'm lucky, I've never experienced anything that bad, but, from time to time, I've seen people feel like that is their situation.
Being solution focussed, I'm bound to suggest an answer to the question - what's the antidote?
Be more direct, more upfront, live without agendas, don't play games, and simplify, simplify.
Have a purpose larger than yourself- the seventh new law (of seven) for a world gone digital from Ahmed and Olander. It reminds me of that great Yes song (I've seen all good people) that I've used in the title.
Let your imagination go wild, and play from your heart but don't surround yourself with yourself.
This is a great law to finish with, it certainly plays into my prejudices:
- Always play from your heart (trust your feelings -yes- from Star Wars)
- Be alive to being alive (Buddhism- be here now)
- Do the right thing (Spike Lee also listened to the Buddha)
- Love what you do (Thoreau- You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand-heap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain)
- Your job is to serve (Joseph Campbell- Through sacrifice - bliss)
- Dream in widescreen, then push on in pixels (John Lennon - Imagine...)
- Heroes can guide, teach, and encourage you (A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'Hi-Yo Silver')
As you can tell I've loved Velocity. Here's the website with all of the seven laws again: http://velocitylaws.com/the-seven-laws/
A big thank you to Ahmed and Olander for an inspirational conversation. Bravo and more...more...
