Wed in Persuasion

Got out of class early today - at 4.30 - I was so excited to come home and see the kiddies on the earlier side. I was so bummed when I called home with the good news and found out that Chris and the kids were stuck at a doctor's appt from hell across town. It's always strange the 2 or 3 times that I've actually been at home without the kidlets. I got so much done! Mostly folded laundry, packed the kids clothes (so sad they're leaving for KC tomorrow) and cooked dinner - a rarity on my part.

Chris is sitting three feet away from me right now writing in his blog.

"We don't talk to each other - we just blog," I say.

He chuckles....

I like that our roles are reversed now that he thanks me for doing the laundry. I can only imagine a world where other dads tell Chris, "You're lucky to have a wife that pitches in to do the housework."

Another wacky class today....

FOR CLASS JOURNAL
I find the nonverbal communication research astounding. I see the glass both as half full and half empty - the possibility of becoming more self-aware and conscious of body language and shifting those first impressions. At the same time, depressing that people's judgements are so snap - however unconcious, especially in terms of race and gender.

I was glad we had that discussion today about gender - I think it was good that we started it with our own personal situations, but I think it would be helpful to take it a step further - and look at woman leaders (or at least one) in the same depth and detail that we have male leaders.

Maybe next year - our pitches in class can be videotaped! to evaluate our own body language and also others' - I loved seeing those clips with the sound off, though I spent most of the class fidgeting in my seat trying not to cross my arms or put my head onto my hand...

I was in the group that was dissected today because of gender/interruption issues. Although I often speak up in class about it, I was trying to listen and understand my "audience" - the class - and kept my mouth shut. While I found the discourse helpful - especially the comment about women being treated as property in one country - I reflected about the dynamics that did take place in our group. Just as it was raised in class for some reasons when we got out of the controlled situation of a 2 minute pitch or a 5 minute presentation - where there is noone else able to speak - it seemed as if all of us had forgotten most of the principles we have been practicing and incorporating. What I noticed in our group - clearly a lot of interruption - which, in essence, is not listening - but also a lot of defensiveness. So I wonder how to incorporate these principles in situations where, I guess, we are not self-aware - when we are so much, as Betsy aptly put it - looking to the outside and not the inside. I was very reactive - funny in some ways, because I didn't even believe the argument I was making - I just wanted to "win" - as you pointed out, as a debate, versus persuasion.

I also have been having a tough time persuading, or at least expressing, my viewpoints that seem so incredibly foreign to my group-mates - that I don't even believe in the capitalist structures that were implied in both sides of the debate - so the whole framing of the debate made me feel like I/we were talking in such random directions - I'm picturing young kids having a squirt gun fight with not really trying very hard to "hit" the other person but just spraying continually because it's fun and it's hot outside - but in this case, for me, it wasn't very fun, because I was frustrated at not being able to challenge the assumptions about how my groupmates framed the debate - and their assumptions that of course I would think that Cuba was a horrible system. I'm wondering how this plays a part in persuassion - certainly knowing thy audience, but I guess I should get back to my yoga teaching principles of being present - with my breath and body and then go from there to evaluate what the status is - I'm wondering if there are many a situations that you just decide - it's not worth trying to persuade on a personal level - just like the larger political analysis you laid out.