Did you know?
Did you know that there is a strong correlation between per capita cheese consumption and the number of people who die by becoming tangled in their bedsheets?
We laugh at the funny correlation in the image above, because we know that correlation does not mean causation.
And yet… we apply this kind of “if/then” thinking on a daily basis to our interactions, without seeing the humor or the flimsiness of such causal conclusions.
“If she said that, then she is clearly a… [fill in the blank].”
“If he did that, then he must hate… [fill in the blank].”
If…, then…
We are sure of what we deduce, and we believe our conclusions to be solid and irrefutable. But cheese consumption can be tabulated in a way that human behavior cannot. Behavior is driven by our own past experiences, our character, our environment, culture, and so many variables, and then we project that onto what we see, and we interpret through our own frame of reference.
The truth is that we do not fully know what drives someone else’s actions or statements unless we inquire further.
Let’s make 2020 a year of inquiry – a year when all of us ask just one more open-ended question before making a statement of certainty. It is the question, not the statement, that creates space for engagement.
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Copyright © 2020 Sharon V. Kristjanson. All rights reserved.