After reading Swabbie’s post of Hanh’s “Interbeing” I feel that there is a lot that relates between this post and the more recent posts that we have made as a class. Especially having worked with Swabbies in our group, it shows the he and I agree on a lot of theories that we’ve discussed in class. Swabbies quotes “Through the blog posts I learned that I automatically identified with people who seemed to share the same experiences as I have.” This is something that I did especially early on in the class, and I still do but I try to do this less. With our class coming to an end I feel I have learned all sorts of different ways to communicate and have successful conversations. Therefore it has become more fun and easier for me to communicate with people that I feel I do not have much in common with. Another quote from Swabbies that relates to our topic of adding to a conversation comes from “I do not hesitate to include more details because it makes a better story when telling someone about a personal experience.” By giving your own personal experience in a conversation not only does it add flavor and make it more interesting but it gives the conversation personality, by being open.
After reading BridgeOfIdeas response to Postman’s article: “The Communication Panacea,” something that came to mind was honesty and how it relates to openness. Bridge writes: “Complete honesty is very difficult for anyone of us.” Postman’s article proves this to be true. I feel that openness is not sincere without honesty, for instance one could make up a personal experience to help another going through a hard time, but the sincerity is not present. Therefore it may be the right thing to do at the time, but there can be no sincerity if it is not true. One could add to a conversation by lying and saying that they understand what the other is saying, or that they can relate. But after this lie, the conversation has lost all sincerity because the other person may not be aware of the lie. Therefore they may continue a conversation based upon a lie.
August 20, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I am happy to read that “it has become more fun and easier for me to communicate with people that I feel I do not have much in common with.” As the teacher, this is evidence to me of movement from an initial level of skill and knowledge (which you name in this post and we also discussed in class) to a new one. Perhaps you will still always be drawn first to those whose experiences are similar to yours, but if you are aware of this tendency then you open up so many more choices for yourself and others.