Just like the
movies. There is a made up world and
then there is reality. As an actor they
have their on stage life and their real life. In the video by Parker J. Palmer, he started
by showing a piece of paper and how one side represents your onstage life (how
you act for others; external) and the other your backstage life(how you are
most likely with your close family and friends; internal). Our onstage lives deal with things like what influences
us, impact us, and questions if we are making a difference. Our backstage life focuses
more on intuition, instinct, values and most importantly (to me) faith. So basically it is what’s in our soul. We have two different parts of ourselves, and
we choose to show them as we felt like it.
This can be good or it can be bad.
It would depend on the situation.
Parker J. Palmer asks “What are we
sending from within ourselves out into the world, and what impact is it having
‘out there’? And “What is the world sending back at us, and what impact is it
having ‘in here’? People want to survive
and succeed in their external world. They
want happy lives. I know I do. In that search you lose sight of who you
really are. In his video, Parker J.
Palmer shows us how to knowingly move about your own “Möbius strip” toward
a full life.
It’s like that fine line at work;
when can you be yourself and relaxed and when to be professional. I work in a school that my kids
attended. This is totally great for me. But at the same time I now live very close to
many of the students I see on a daily basis.
Now I am no saint but I am a good, decent person. When I am home I let my guard down and I live
my “back stage” life. Not that I do
anything bad but I have kids on my block I work with. SO I always have to be mindful of how I act, especially
during the warmer weather when we all seem to be outside at the same time. So this is what Parker may call stage
two. Stage two was defined as not
feeling safe to be ourselves. You build
a wall. In my case, I built a 6 foot
fence. This helped make me feel I can “let
my hair down” in and outside my own home without wondering what the kids or
their parents might think if they see me with a drink or with my fun rowdy
friends.
In the book, on page 10
and 11 talks about views of adolescence and adulthood. I found this most interesting because I have
two children in this stage of their lives; one nearing adulthood. It talks about how that part of your lifespan
there are many physical developments going on as well as social and emotional
experiences that shape their lives and behavior. Working in a school, I see this with the little
ones. My groups of kids have many of
their own personal struggles and I see how hard they try for acceptance from
their peers and the staff. One student
wants attention so bad, it does not matter that he seeks it in a negative
way. Today’s children seem to be
expected to grow up way too fast.
I also found the part
of the book about understanding how culture plays a role in our lives (page
13). My husband can just turn on the
news or some of this reality shows and we both think “is this the future?” Culture as defined in the book is customs, values
and traditions essential to one’s life.
What we find most disturbing is how little values people have these
days. Customs and traditions are very
important but to me the values you instill in your children early on and set by
example is even more important for how they live the rest of their lives.
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