Resilience Part 2: Audit Assumptions
I can't think of a better place to start this blog than this quote:
"Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in." ~ Alan Alda
That pretty much sums it up.
I tried to introduce the idea through a parable, to usher it in through role-play, even a moment of starting with the analogy of water and rock...but pretty much all of them fell short by comparison.
The point is this: assumptions breed all kinds of mini plagues that grow and multiply to systemic conditions like racism that distort the truth through the manufacture of "other realities." These falsehoods hurt not only the focused receiver and subject of the lies, half-truths, suspicions, and curiosities, it corrupts the inventor and those around them -- planting weeds of doubt and "otherness" field by field by field.
Assumptions can start out small, with massive effects over time. It's not just "the tortoise and the hare" in an analogy of what will perform better and achieve its end goal faster. It can also be as subtle as underestimating the power of a single, slim stream of water that over 6 million years has eroded 1,000 cubic miles, leaving us with the Grand Canyon. This is all to say: "you can't judge a book by its cover."
...Or rather, you can, but stop doing that...it doesn't speak to the quality of the work inside.
When you make assumptions without any intention to audit and correct them, further define them, get to the root of them...you are setting up a library of false news with which to live by. These notions, not fact-checked or studied, only assumed, begin to erode the strength of your own character, your conscience, your empathy, and even your sense of humanity. You may not notice it at first, but as sure as the Colorado River cut through 1,000 miles of rock, living with the code of assumption as your through-line will only wreak havoc to everything around it.
Assumptions can be built through habits, beliefs, relationships, lack of curiosity, bad manners, and even good intentions. They can show up in many ways and places, including: *
- Getting your wallet stolen while on vacation in Mexico
- Attending an all-girls Catholic school
- Meeting your new neighbor who speaks Arabic
- Trying curry for the first time
- Not trusting significant others
- Never trying something new on the menu
- Visiting Paris
- Hugging your purse closer to you when walking past a couple of black guys on the street
This is why I love that quote so much. It isn't pretending that we don't all participate in passing assumptions. Because we all do it. But it is recognizing the importance of auditing those ideas, examining them further, dispelling the falsified ones. It gives us a cleaner gaze out, a cleaner content within. By challenging our own assumptions, we ask ourselves the hard truth of why. What is the proof, where is the truth, and how can I do better? Assume less, investigate more, and help to tear down the walls of the unjust supposition that resides all around us.
When you are able, where you are able, suss out the alternative news, and alternative truths you've been told or self-manufactured, and right those wrongs. Wash those windows. Try that new dish. Make a new friend. Accept "other" as "exceptional, just not yet understood."
Build an internal library of quality of content...no matter how the binding happens to look.