What is Your World View?

I recently attended an Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute and one of the topics for a mediation training was on world view. The speaker pointed out that while world view impacts basically everything, it is not a simple matter of asking someone what their world view is. You can try and some people may have explicitly thought about it and would be able to respond. Many would not.

So here are some questions for you to ponder just in case someone asks you what your world view is:

Is your life's outcome predetermined?

Can you change your environment at work, home and social life?

Can you create whatever you want in life?

Does your situation limit your potential?

Are you a pessimist, optimist or realist? What does the term you picked mean to you?

Do rules and morals come from an outside source or from within?

As you can see from the questions, how we view the world will impact our decisions, attitudes and relationships. Making your world view explicit to yourself will help you better relate to others and understand yourself. You may decide to update your world view.

Shaun

(c) 2006 Shaun G. Jamison

Proposal Approved!

I am so relieved. Today I learned that my dissertation proposal has been approved and I will be able to begin my research. I am taking a quick moment to say THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me to this point.

I am now out of what Dr. Seuss called the "Waiting Place" that useless, worthless place he described in Oh, the Places You'll Go! Being a self-motivated type, I did try to use the time well by reading up on qualitative research and catching up on my continuing education, among other things. But the truth is no matter how productive I was, I was still in the waiting place.

I think that we can take steps to use our time well and think positively, but nothing can completely mitigate that feeling of waiting for an unknown result. What do you think?

Shaun

P.S. A quick recap for new readers, I am researching the use of reflective journaling for professional development.

Coaching Instead of Juvey Hall?

A prosecutor in Wisconsin is promoting the idea of life coaching for young people instead of jail time. I suppose it depends on your view of the purpose of criminal justice, i.e., whether the purpose is to punish or rehabilitate. It should not be a surprise that it is more effective to intervene in someone's life earlier than later. Hats off to Wisconsin for "getting it!"
Shaun

What is God's Plan?

It would be hard to miss all of the news coverage of the tragic shootings at the Amish schoolhouse this week. I had a conversation where someone asked about an Amish person quoted as saying that the girls' death was part of God's plan. "How can that possibly be part of God's plan?" she asked.

That is certainly a tough question to answer and to which only God can answer authoritatively, but let me give you a possibility. You may know that the Amish take "turn the other cheek" quite seriously. In other words, love and forgive and do not retaliate. This is difficult, but not impossible in a tiny, homogeneous collaborative living situation like the Amish have. But now with a man bursting into their lives with an unspeakable crime, the Amish have been tested sorely.

Did the Amish apply situational ethics and say, this one time we will not forgive because it is just too much to bear? No, rather they forgave and reached out to the family of the shooter. They accept what cannot be undone and pray. So what might God's plan in all of this be?

We have a sickness of violence and retribution in this society. We seek first for punishment and violence, rather than seeking to understand. Peace begets peace and war begets war and oppression begets revolution. The Amish know what their values are and stick to them. As much as we may admire them, I am not suggesting we all convert or that they have no flaws. What I am suggesting is that it may be God's plan that we see the power of prayer and forgiveness in the wake of a heinous and seemingly unforgivable crime. What if this terrible event leads to changing the hearts of just enough people to save millions of lives?

I do not pretend to know this is the answer, only that sometimes we do not know the full meaning of an event. I hope my interpretation speaks to your heart and mind.

Shaun