Mistaken Identity

An online game that I sometimes play displays a "color word" (e.g., black, blue, red, yellow) and a colored shape (e.g., a blue or red circle; a yellow or black square; a red or yellow triangle).  The task is to decide if the word and the shape's color match.  You are trying to score as many correct answers as you can in a short amount of time.  Every time you play you are trying to improve your previous score.  Simple, right?

There is a trick in the game, though:  the color of the word may match the shape's color, but the word actually may spell out a different color.

Example:  the word may be BLACK but it is colored as blue, and the shape may be blue.  This is NOT a match.... because the color word says BLACK.

It's amazing what our minds see and how we react!

What do you see?
(Photo credit: festival honoring the Greek god Dionysus,
Paris 2024 Olympics - MSNBC)

You may have watched the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics or have heard some of the commentary following.  What amazes me is how quickly we form opinions, come to conclusions, judge, and become outraged by something we dislike... or don't understand.

Lady Gaga and the Moulin Rouge Can Can Dancers were some of the entertainers along the 3-plus mile route the Olympic athletes took along the Seine River.  No outrage or negative comments.

One tableau paid homage to the early Greek Olympics: it was a scene of an Olympic festival honoring the god Dionysus.  Some people saw this scene as a mockery of DaVinci's iconic "The Last Supper." 

Our minds see what is familiar to us... and how quickly we react!

How do we interpret what is unfamiliar to us?
(Photo: Elizabeth Peratrovich and
Totem Pole, Juneau - Larry Gardepie)

I have been to Juneau several times over the years.  In a recent visit, I noticed a new set of totem poles along the waterway and a portrait of a young indigenous woman. Totem poles tell stories - reading from the bottom up.  The stories of older totem poles are sometimes lost when the elders die.  Looking at these newer poles, I can revel at their beauty and craftsmanship... but I don't know what they are saying.

And, what was the story behind this woman's portrait?  I did a little research and found out that her name was Elizabeth Peratrovich, a woman of the local Tlingit peoples.  In 1941, she saw a sign in a Juneau hotel that read "No Natives Allowed."  She is honored as the first Alaskan civil rights activist who helped people see the harm in excluding others because of their skin, background... and stories.

How many stories are untold?
(Photo:  Gitwilgyoots Tribe panel, Prince Rupert - Larry Gardepie)

Exploring Prince Rupert, we came across an exhibit of wall panels from the native tribal houses.  The panels have similarities -- but are quite different when you spend time looking at the details of each panel.  The local peoples have different stories.  I realized as I stood in front of each panel that I could marvel at the beauty and design, but there was so much I didn't know:  I didn't know the stories; I could not identify. 

There is so much we don't know about ourselves and others!  Our mistake is that we have forgotten some of our stories... or, in the case of people from other countries and cultures, we don't know their stories.

Maybe it's time to...  (How would you finish this sentence?) 
 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)

Who We Are Becoming

Each of us is formed by family and cultural traditions, national identity and holiday celebrations, education, religious beliefs, and factors that present themselves in our separate timelines.  We live our individual lives... with many similarities... but with just as many differences... as those around us.

When major events happen, our memories are galvanized around those events:  Do you remember when humans first landed on the moon?  What were you doing when you heard the news that Princess Diana had died?  Did you see the World Trade Center's Twin Towers collapse?

What memories are impressed on who you are?
(Photo: 9-11 Memorial, New York City - Larry Gardepie)

Each generation has its own defining moments: the Great Depression of the 1930s, Pearl Harbor in 1941, World Wars I and II, the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy in the 1960s...  We are shaped by and identify with many events.

These thoughts were going through my mind as I stood at the 9-11 Memorial in New York City:  the footprint of the two towers defined by the names of world citizens who died that late summer morning over twenty years ago, the sound of water falling into these acre-sized Monuments to Time.

Are there symbols of who you want to become?
(Photo:  Liberty at Sunset - Larry Gardepie)

I wondered about other Footprints Impressed on each of our lives as we try to understand the diversity and common unity of being human:  what we share; what binds us together; and what separates us.  At times we need national or universal symbols or leaders who point the way to our "better angels" as Abraham Lincoln described in his first inaugural address in 1861.

Symbols that remind us of the freedom to choose, to accept, and to support.

What illuminates your life?
(Photo:  New York City at Sunset - Larry Gardepie)

As I reflect on who I am as a person and who we are as a nation, I wonder where we are headed... in essence, Who are We Becoming?  We can remain on autopilot and follow the direction from others or we can choose to participate in this Action of Becoming:

• Do I choose to be generous with my time and resources in helping others?
• Can I illuminate the dark or unknown paths by sharing what I know?
• Will I listen to other perspectives and engage in curious inquiry?

As we answer these individual and communal questions:

• May we recognize the footprints of family and friends in our lives.
• May we understand the impressions we make on others.
• May we choose to become the Better Angels of our time.

 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)