Stupid…Echoes

"You know how sometimes the last sentence you said, like, echoes in your brain? And it just keeps sounding stupider? And you have to say something else just to make it stop?"
Angela on My So-Called Life

Choosing One Path

"Choosing one path means abandoning others - if you try to follow every possible path you will end up following none." – Brida by Paulo Coelho

There are so many paths out there. It is difficult to know which ones to follow. The important thing is making an informed choice and following through with it.

This quotation makes me think of the current milk advertisements I have seen on TV. They show teenage characters trying to make a choice. The inner dialogue shows that they are struggling with a decision. Part of them doesn’t want to do the right thing but the characters make the choice and act. We see them move but an after image of them does not move and fades away like a ghost.

Sometimes we need to leave things behind in order to grow. The commercial’s tag line at the end is, “Always grow…Grow all ways.” It’s a great message.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Dialogue Skills

“Much of our satisfaction in life depends on our skills in connecting with other people – skills of dialogue we might call them.” - Bonnycastle, Stephen. In Search of Authority pg 23

Connecting with people is a skill? Does that mean that we can learn how to do it better? I think it does. This quotation is brilliant because it opens up a whole new way of thinking. If dialogue is a skill, that means we can develop it. Any good skill comes with practice and effort. How many of us actually try to get better at dialogue?

I know that it took me a long time to learn how to listen to people. I still don’t do it very well. I am often too caught up in my own thoughts to truly listen. I sometime am thinking of what I want to say instead of actually listening to the other person. I sometimes monopolize the conversation. I sometimes come across as authoritative. I know that these things actually cut me off from connecting with other people.

The other interesting thing about this entry in my commonplace book is the author’s use of the word satisfaction. I know that happiness often comes down to family and friends. In this life, I don’t think there are two more important things. Yet he says that happiness comes from how we connect with other people. Which leads me to ask, what makes a friend a friend? Is it the way that we connect with them? Is that related to dialogue or is there a lot more going on? I don’t know. But in the meantime, I can be more aware of my skills in this area and try to improve them. After all, it couldn’t hurt.

Dialogue as Thought Process

“I have to engage in endless dialogue before I write,” McLuhan explains, “I want to talk a subject over and over … I do a lot of my serious work while I’m talking out loud to people. I’m feeling around, not making pronouncements. Most people use speech as a result of thought, but I use it as the process.” - Fitzgerald, Judith. Marshall McLuhan: Wise Guy. XYZ Publishing: Montreal, 2001. pg 58-59.

I like to talk over story ideas too. I find my best ideas actually come through in conversations. I don’t know why this is, but it does seem to be the case. When I read this quote, I knew that I wasn’t alone in this.

I have solved problems in my class by talking. I have come up with lesson plan ideas through speech. I have come up with behaviour management techniques, routines, and countless other useful things through the process of speech.

I have actually been thinking about starting a writer’s group to this end. I have heard about groups that meet over the telephone on conference calls. It’s an interesting idea that I will need to explore so more.