Put down your weapons

I bought a book on non-violent communication yesterday and read about half of it this afternoon after I got angry. It was a good thing. I was angry but alone so I couldn't communicate at all, and I could read about it without messing up, maybe. Maybe not.

The author tells about giving a training. After a half hour he asked for comments. The first person to speak told him that he was so arrogant. He began to ask questions to find out what this person was thinking before he came to the evaluation that arrogance was the problem. The person complaining believed the trainer was making this incredibly hard shift in behavior sound easy. The trainer assured the person that it has not been easy, that he struggles as well, but he finds it worth the struggle. By the end of the day, the person who made the judgment of arrogance had invited the trainer home for dinner.

So, I'll get plenty of practice, I guess. A lot of communicating goes on around here.

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This evening we watched the movie "Joyeux Noel" about Christmas 1914, World War I, when soldiers stopped their battles and shared their lives with each other, sang together, played soccer and shared treats from home. I knew the story before, but it is told well here. Seeing the enemy as human breaks down barriers in miraculous ways. The story often brings tears for me, partly for the beauty of people seeing each other differently and being changed by that, but mostly for the sadness that this happens too seldom.

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