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Learning from Noah
Most folks know the story of Noah. How God warned him about an upcoming flood that would last for 40 days and 40 nights. To preserve nature, Noah took two of every animal onto his Ark in readiness for breeding once the storm had passed.
However, you could also look at it another way. If a cow died, Noah would still have had one cow left for beef and milk. He and his family wouldn’t starve, and they could come back to land and start afresh.
Moral of the story? Always have a back-up plan.
Obviously…
A new study by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada comes up with some amazing facts:
- Teen girls who smoke marijuana are much more likely to be sexually active
- Getting drunk more often correlates with an increased likelihood of sexual activity
Um… no shit, Sherlock. (To be fair, there’s also an alarming statistic about suicide).
Studies that report what we already know aren’t studies; they’re merely expensive validations of common sense. How about reporting what we don’t know? Or is that too much like common sense, too?
Errors in Judgement
Sometimes we make decisions based on a spur of the moment emotion. We read or hear something we disagree with, and take it to a higher level than it probably needs to go.
This leads us to reacting.
It could be that we speak out about what we’ve just disagreed with. It could be that we place someone on a filtered list, whether it’s email, blog comments, Twitter feeds or similar. Sometimes we continue that reaction long after the reason for its initiation has passed.
Reacting is ordinary. Reacting is human. Reacting is our emotions telling us that we don’t like something. Yet continuing that reaction isn’t ordinary. Sadly, I’m guilty of that, and was reminded twice this week (once just this morning).
Which makes me kind of hypocritical.
Look around this blog. Aside from the posts about social media, marketing, tools and platforms, hopefully one of the biggest things that comes across is that of community. It’s in my tagline; it’s why I have guest bloggers; it’s why I have an open comments policy. To me community is everything, and I try and share ways for you to build community as well (if you wish to).
Holding onto reactions isn’t community building. Speaking out long after the fact isn’t community building. I know this, and yet I fell guilty to it, and it took the wise words of two very smart people to make me realize this.
So.
This is my apology, for letting extended reactions go on way too long. We’re all human and we all make errors in judgement. I promise not to let mine continue so long the next time.
We’re Watching
We’re watching.
We’re watching what you say; how you say it; and the conviction behind it. We’re taking in the words you use; the directions you’re giving; the recommendations you’re sharing. We’re taking you at face value and trusting what our ears hear and our eyes see.
Our eyes are our cameras and cameras never lie.
So next time you’re about to speak, remember – we’re watching.