August has been a month of “firsts”. I had the chance to work on my first full body painting and today I had my first experience as a college professor. I like the professor status a lot. I love teaching. I have a great group of freshmen and I had the chance to welcome them for their first class as undergraduate students at this university. I also believe that this is the first time the students were asked by a professor to take a selfie. We all took a selfie with some of the students in the background behind each one of use while the people behind us was also taking a selfie. You might ask “Why?”
Our seminar is about developing a process of inquiry and a selfie allows people to understand our reality that we can only see things from our point of view as everyone else. Therefore, if we allow our assumptions and interpretations of the world around us to be challenged by the fact that there are other points of view we can learn to be unbiased learners. Moreover, it also helps people understand the need to communicate honestly and respectfully. We don’t have to attack people for what they believe or for what they say but we can challenge the statement. We don’t have to agree with everything people say or do, but we can understand why they say what they say and why they do what they do. Above all that, I believe we all need to learn how not to get offended every time someone or a statement doesn’t agree with us and how we see the world. We can also present our position with camaraderie with the intention to grow together as if all the selfies were part of one big picture without offending people.
September promises to be an interesting month. Things will only get more interesting as we continue experiencing the inquiry process in class. During this month I will continue experimenting and exploring more in body painting. In relationship to that, I will be body painting during an art show opening at the Gallery at Elemar in New Haven, CT (Friday, September 18: more details to come), and I will also be body painting the next day during the MAC Fest in Downtown Milford, CT. Don’t forget to also check out the sculpting and painting parties. Hope to see you soon in any of these events.
You Will Get Offended
“You will get offended at some point. Someone is going to say something that will go against what you think or believe, and you will get offended. However, getting offended is a choice. There is another choice. You can look back at this selfie and understand that you only have one view and a very small part of the complete story.”
Inquiry is a fancy label to seek understanding of multiple points of view. In the process, we discover that we don’t know everything, or have all the answers. Interestingly, with all the advances in technology, specially in astronomy, some people still believe that the universe revolves around them. Some people assume that their current knowledge and understanding, and self-gained experience is the one and only irrevocable truth. As I often tell my students, and share with other people in conversations, the earth was flat. Through a process of investigation we realize that it is not.
In life, what we think we know today can be challenged, and it can change for our own benefit. We increase knowledge when we allow ourselves to understand different positions and points of view. Our world expands when we can see it from multiple perspectives, but not so much when we only look through the scope of our self-righteous, self-absorbed understanding of the world around us like there is nothing else. It is very easy to talk about tolerance and acceptance, when the only thing we tolerate and accept is what we believe. Then we get offended by opposition. Nevertheless, there is a big difference between tolerance and acceptance, and to surrender your believes and principles for what someone else understands is the truth. Understanding you is not going to change what I believe, but I get to see your point. That is a subject for another conversation.
We all have a selfie, a small view of the world around us. You choose to be offended or to allow yourself to understand other points of view. Some people will choose to hold on to their wisdom and allow their world to shrink with their self-righteousness. Others will grow their wisdom and understanding by investigating and learning about different perspectives on the subject matter.
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