"I Am Adorable" and the Power of Story

     The other day, I was talking with a family and the young girl  said "Well, it's actually pretty simple. I am adorable... and my brother just needs to learn how to be more adorable. Can you help us with that?" Talk about trying to keep a straight face... I glanced at the parents and they were having trouble keeping their smiles under some semblance of control, too. It got me thinking about many things (of course). One of them was the nature of bias and the power of story.

      Actually, she had a point. Once a negative event occurs, you have a "data point." Then, if you have another one, a "story" starts to develop around it. Depending on how that story develops... the themes and direction it takes, that story begins to influence the behavior of everyone else involved in that circle. And, pretty soon, you have a series of stories, which will often "match" the first story, because of how our biases will often reinforce the original story... which relied on that little tiny interpretation of that little teensie weensie event... which no one may even remember. 

Maybe we might consider this when we are "sure" that we "know the truth when we see it...?" Perhaps, we can take a breath, step back and ask ourselves "What can I not see yet? What else am I missing?"

The Power of Empathy: It is the Key to All Types of Mediation and Connecting in Shared Interest

"Split- A Film About Divorce"- For Children from 6-13

The 1971 Coke Commercial "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Which Reflected the Dreams of Unifying One Nation, Where People Would Not Be Judged (Or Separated) by the Color of Their Skin or The Roots of Their Heritage... So... Where Are We Today, Brothers and Sisters?

The American Bar Association Has Published This PSA on the Value of Mediation

The "Look for the Good Project"- What a Beautiful Tool for Adjusting Our Own Attitude!

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words about Justice: A Call for A Collective State of Maladjustment (from 1967)

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words about Justice: Safety, Expediency, Vanity and Conscience: His Call for Our Collective State of Maladjustment

(On September 1, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. presented a keynote address to a national convention

group of psychologists: "The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in The Civil Rights Movement"    

The following are excerpts from that address:)

         

         "These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we  face in our society.” ...“It is my deep conviction that justice is indivisible, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ...“On some positions cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?" But conscience must ask the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular. But one must take it because it is right. And that is where I find myself today.”

         "... I am sure that we all recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted... There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry... Thus, it may well be that our world is in dire need of a new organization, the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment. 

       "Men and women should be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who in the midst of the injustices of his day, could cry out in words that echo across the centuries, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream"; or as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of his vacillations finally came to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; or as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery, could scratch across the pages of history, words lifted to cosmic proportions, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..." 
        "... And through such creative maladjustment, we may be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man.... I have not lost hope. I must confess that these have been very difficult days for me personally. And these have been difficult days for every Civil Rights leader, for every lover of justice and peace.”

The complete Distinguished Address  to the the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues is online at http://bit.ly/WoaeGF.

Make a Difference- The Power of Anonymous Generosity- Why Wait? Thank you, KarmaTube and Happy New Year!

Video from KarmaTube

Band of Brothers Rally Around 6 Year Old Schoolmate to Protest Him Being Teased

Empathy Is a Radical Tool of Social Change: It's Far More Than a Soft, Fluffy Concept!

In contemplating the passing of Nelson Mandela, I return to this brilliant RSA animation video which captures the radical power of peacemaking. We make choices in each encounter we join, in our home, our workplace, our community, our world... every single day. I begin my day with this in mind... as I contemplate my gratitudes... and step outside myself... let the day begin!