Difference of Opinion?

This book on creativity, imagination, and critical thinking is great. A concept in it motivated the basic tall order of this school, where everyone is a student teacher. In my own words after many years of not reading it: Master Crafters have ways of doing tasks, that they developed through their passionate pursuit of craft over decades. A student has the unfortunate and wonderful ability to not know what the “right way” to do a task is. This gives them something the wizened worker can lose easily. The ability to discover new more efficient/effective ways to accomplish something. 

And now thanks to Google Books: “They receive the awards and recognition when they are famous experts, but the ideas were created as novices. Novices are the best rule breakers. It is easier to break a rule that one has just learned.” –Scott Thorpe-Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover your Hidden Genius. 

The intro to this article was inspired this morning by dialogue I’ve been having with another blogger. He’s hustling his inbox in a way I admire. His comments are profound, and reciprocally proportionate to mine(which is a big deal to me, as my copious verbosity in pursuit of understanding what I think and feel can be overwhelming; so I hope to be more concise in other bloggers comment section: but his replies reveal to me that Roman is a generous person). The message he’s sharing with his writing is empowering. Here is my comment to a reply of his, on his latest article. If it’s not clear in my out of context comment below, I believe I’m right, I have the feeling he believes I should look at it differently, and we’re having a conflict of opinion….potentially:

“I’m excited to be further challenged by the premise that addressing the subject of happiness separately at work is the ideal. While I recognize that my work is particularly interwoven with my personal life in ways it isn’t for others, and that skews my perceptions towards them being the same thing; I love to get paid to build boundaries: so looking forward to hearing your insights on the topic. I have found the words “should” and “sorry” to be synonymous with miserable thought. I love to encourage people to give themselves a slice of joy by choosing to use “could” and “thanks” as substitutes as much as possible. Those two concepts are in my Human Resource Department guidelines for operations: “timber pitch yaw and stroke”.
As far as the counseling appointment, I am planning on going. The thing I’m cancelling at the last minute will be the “appointment to worry”, as this is a strategy I learned in another counseling appointment years ago, and I love to share it. There are always opportunities to postpone worry, and setting aside time specifically to worry, can be a healthy way to get it done and move on, or cancel it if you’ve worried enough. The group life coaching is guided by the (new to me) theory of “Germanic Healing Knowledge”. It’s less about having an overarching issue that each of us share in common, and more about sharing our struggles and listening to each other’s. The supporting feedback from the counselor, and others in the group relating their experience to ours is cool. Only been once so far. Love it. Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts about separating work and personal life in the pursuit of happiness….although I feel it would be unethical if I didn’t admit at this point, that I believe happiness is a pursuit, not something possible to maintain perpetually for a healthy individual, and contentment is my goal. I find the highs and lows of happiness and misery to be unsustainable and dangerous, preferring to grasp both fiercely when they occur, but have accepted that neither is safe from my principles, the world, and passing time. One example of this is the new research into accomplishment, that shows how our brain has an area that grows with doing things you find intolerable; like going to the gym when you don’t want to, or asking a girl on a date. Gallows humor would be another example of a way to find joy when happiness is far away. Homicide detectives, Nurses, Doctors, Fire Fighters, and people like me who mitigate mold, rot, rodent infestations, broken foundations etc; utilize it because their life is dedicated to the gnarly aspects of defending survival. I find contentment in dealing with gross, a sense of well being that my life has a worthy purpose, and the small joy of laughing it away helps deal with my perspective; that letting go of happiness for a moment to support the pursuit of it for others: is the sacrifice that decides my value as a worthy citizen. My pursuit of happiness is intrinsically interwoven with the idea, that after 9 days of no running water and electricity, some people will be suffering greatly, some will be taking advantage of them in parasitical ways, and I will be useful. I love how storms and broken things reveal humanity in its myriad of wonderful, but draw the line at being happy at other’s misfortune for giving me an opportunity to shine. Weird how one of the things that is most hilarious, is other peoples misery. How comedians can be some of the most sad people. The bigger the grin, I start wondering what grief is hidden. I hope this gave you a sense of solidarity towards what I see as our shared path. “I would have made this reply shorter, but I didn’t have the time”. I love your work here Roman.”

“The difference between a pro and an amateur, is knowing what’s good enough” -Porter