As we soon celebrate the 15th year of the Intramuralist (crazy… I know!), I find myself grateful, gleeful and sincerely humbled. It’s been a true labor of love for this decade and a half. As we near our actual anniversary this fall, we will find ways to appropriately (and wittily) acknowledge the years, span the subjects, and express our deep gratitude to the thousands of you who have loyally tuned in.
The reality is this also finds me a wee bit nostalgic. It’s fun to remember some of which we wrote. So I scaled back to our earliest years and found the following insightful gem.
It’s a little more personal.
And it began by discussing how we look at other people.
It started by suggesting that we tend to look at one another in one of two ways — that all-too-luring, all-too-incomplete binary choice…
“… We look at others in one of two ways: (1) what they are capable of doing, or (2) what they are not. We employ this tactic often, and it appears we employ it with a confidence that is questionable… perhaps sometimes inappropriate.”
And after presenting the binary bait, we acknowledged how this plays itself out in politics and sports.
But alas, neither is truly my favorite subject.
As written years ago, indulge me in my no doubt favorite example, from a sweet, momentous time…
“Today my youngest son ‘graduates’ from his first school. He has attended the early childhood center for 5 years, having the privilege of learning under some extremely, highly skilled educators since the age of 2. He has grown. He has blossomed. He can now do things we once wondered if impossible! Joshua is ready to tackle whatever happens next. He is fully confident that he can move forward — even without knowing all that ‘forward’ entails.
His propitious development astounds all who invest in him. Remember, this is the same child who solicited an initial in utero response from more than one doctor in regard to our desire to abort him. Please know their question was asked respectfully. It simply would have been more tactful had they congratulated us on his conception first.
Each day Josh looks at mountains and perceives them to be merely mole hills. Each day there are those who try to remind him they are really mountains. Some hold sincere intention, like his elementary, female peers who possess that seemingly innate mothering gene and thus work to instill some type of independent control in all those around them. But I also see adults interact with him… like the mom on the baseball field who seems to only announce what my son is doing wrong. Where is the affirmation for being on that field instead? Where is the affirmation for what my son can potentially do? Who he can potentially be?
I believe one of our objectives in life on planet Earth is to spur others on to be who they were called to be. To encourage them all the more. To motivate them to use their gifts. If we only look at others from the perspective of what they cannot do, we ourselves will never spur on another. We will then be the ones incapable.”
It’s a fascinating phenomena…
The greatest limitations are those we discern we have the ability to place… either on others or on self.
So we ask today: who are we negatively assessing? Who are we seeing most from the perspective of what they cannot do?
Let’s be better. Let’s be kinder. Let’s spur another on.
Respectfully…
AR