This blog post is in response to that of Terrance McNeil’s Week 2 reading post, which can be found at http://thescopetm.blogspot.com/2011/05/week-2-art-of-possibility.html.
This is a copy of Terrance’s original post and my response to it.
I have been reading “The Art of Possibilty” by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. It is an excellent book from what I have read so far. It is full of inspiring words of wisdom framed around actual situations they have experienced.
The construct and perception issue was very interesting to me. Many times life is all about the way we perceive a thing. I thought the analogy about the two shoe salesmen in Africa was awesome. I shared it with my class. I found myself wondering how much of my own unhappiness I contribute to by not having a healthy perspective.
I was reminded of the Matrix movies when I read the “Its All Invented” section. Creating the construct to suit our needs seems to be such a simple solution. It makes sense. In the movie Neo had to first get past his “in the box” thinking to achieve greatness.
I was drawn into the comments on the pathology that the book addressed dealing with the rationale for our decisions. It is true that many of our decisions are based on rationale and not on the true reasons for our motivation.
This book is extremely insightful. I have not thought in terms of the way we collectively see the world in the ways this book highlights. It is very true that through the various scientific eras we have been adding to our global paradigm (page 13).
In my opinion learning to recognize the world of possibility by identifying the measurement world was brilliant. It is very hard not to think in terms of measurement world limitations. Recognizing this makes you long for a world where that is not an issue- the world of possibility.
The process of “giving an A” was very profound. I have tried to teach my students to recognize the best in each other but this takes it to another level. I feel empowered to grow with even more people who come in my life now. The World of Possibility is a place I would like to spend a lot of time in.
@Terrance
I too loved the tale of the two guys who went to Africa to market the shoes. I found myself thinking back to it this weekend, as I had to go out of town to a wedding in a place I had never visited before. On Friday afternoon we checked into our hotel, which was supposed to be hands down the nicest in the area, and every time we turned around we were finding problem after problem, in a newly remodeled hotel no less. After having maintenance come to our rooms for the third time in 2 days we met with the maintenance manager, and we presented him with our revised perspective of the situation. His department was not to blame with the problems that we were finding, as they were always so quick to respond to them and to remedy them. The problems lay in two areas, first with the crew that did the remodeling in the first place, and secondly with the housekeeping staff for not letting the maintenance department know that these problems existed in the first place so that they could have been remedied sooner. This intern led to a complete revision of housekeeping policy (or so we were told), and a newfound respect on our part for the hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment