The power of your words
A couple nights ago I finally got a chance to attend my first Ladies Who Launch networking session run by Allie Covarrubias. Being unfamiliar with the electoral process I asked the 2 women I was talking at the end of the event, if they knew what the result of the Proposition 8 vote. One of them said as a result of the vote there would be a change made to the US constitution.
One of the 2 women I was speaking to admitted to voting “Yes” on this ballot issue. I was shocked hearing this from someone who is a woman and lives in San Francisco. She voted for changing the constitution – the agreement in which this great country was founded on! The other woman chatting was equally perplexed at her response and that she even would admit it in this forum we were having.
The woman who voted “Yes” even admitted she understood that whether or not she agreed with same-sex marriage that minority rights means rights for all people no matter how you differentiate yourself and it is imperative for a our democratic society to advance. In a woman’s group how could one of our members be vehemently apposed to same-sex marriage that they would vote to change the constitution?
She admitted to have both gay and lesbian friends but she said the decision was based on the word “marriage” NOT on the act of marriage. To her, “marriage” was sacred word used to describe the union between a man and a woman. In the country she immigrated from, they had legalized same-sex marriages but they used another word to define a same-sex union.
Sometimes an issue is so charged that we can’t even see what we’re fighting about and as a result there could be split between people and our connectedness to each other.
We don’t live in reality. We live in our interpretations of our reality. This means that each of us has our own unique definitions and meaning for the words that create our reality. No two realities are the same. If we don’t take the time to listen and really understand what another is communicating, what their meaning and definition behind their words then we will definitely loose out to misunderstandings that can elevate our disagreements to possibly violent proportions. In this case, because we got wrapped up in our interpretation, because we couldn’t see the real issue we may be permanently scaring a document that founded this great country.
Tracy Slotin
Corporate Culturist
The Executive Sandbox Innovation Consultants
One of the 2 women I was speaking to admitted to voting “Yes” on this ballot issue. I was shocked hearing this from someone who is a woman and lives in San Francisco. She voted for changing the constitution – the agreement in which this great country was founded on! The other woman chatting was equally perplexed at her response and that she even would admit it in this forum we were having.
The woman who voted “Yes” even admitted she understood that whether or not she agreed with same-sex marriage that minority rights means rights for all people no matter how you differentiate yourself and it is imperative for a our democratic society to advance. In a woman’s group how could one of our members be vehemently apposed to same-sex marriage that they would vote to change the constitution?
She admitted to have both gay and lesbian friends but she said the decision was based on the word “marriage” NOT on the act of marriage. To her, “marriage” was sacred word used to describe the union between a man and a woman. In the country she immigrated from, they had legalized same-sex marriages but they used another word to define a same-sex union.
Sometimes an issue is so charged that we can’t even see what we’re fighting about and as a result there could be split between people and our connectedness to each other.
We don’t live in reality. We live in our interpretations of our reality. This means that each of us has our own unique definitions and meaning for the words that create our reality. No two realities are the same. If we don’t take the time to listen and really understand what another is communicating, what their meaning and definition behind their words then we will definitely loose out to misunderstandings that can elevate our disagreements to possibly violent proportions. In this case, because we got wrapped up in our interpretation, because we couldn’t see the real issue we may be permanently scaring a document that founded this great country.
Tracy Slotin
Corporate Culturist
The Executive Sandbox Innovation Consultants
Labels: Communication, understanding
posted by Tracy Slotin at 1:07 PM
1 Comments:
Tracy, very well stated, just think of all the many disputes between people that may be caused because of words and cultural differences. But, it takes a very open minded person to listen to someone else's point of view when the topic is as personal as gay marriage.
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