Teaching Leadership LO6827

John Paul Fullerton (jpf@mail.myriad.net)
Sat, 20 Apr 1996 00:54:11 +0000

Replying to LO6805 --

Sherry said

> >The question that comes to mind is, how does one learn to care?

John said

> The question also comes to mind "what do we care about?" To which I would
> respond we care about ourselves. We do things that we think make sense
> for ourselves. We act in our best personal best interest. Given that we
> care about ourselves, what does that mean?

It's possible that the following is basically re-wording what John
said in the rest of his note; however, there may be a difference.
Tonight on a university campus I was looking for a table to work on
the search document that I've been rewriting lately. Three guys who
had on maintenance or janitorial or other uniforms walked past
talking among themselves about what their task was. I nodded to the
last person, and he seemed to nod his head in a way that might have
been subservient. I wondered why that would be and thought of what
earlier experience with people might have prompted it. It seemed
wrong that he should be kept in a position where it seemed sensible
to behave as "lesser", unless, of course, he wanted to. I thought,
what could be done for him; what could be done in the university
culture that would make more space for him?

The main point is that it seemed for a moment that I was thinking
about what would be better for him, though, as John said, it wasn't
much time until "better for him" meant better for me, too. It's
possible to define many actions as self-motivated, yet to say that
all of everyone's actions are self-motivated gets the question "do
you know everyone?" Your caring is not a question; rather, the
thought that all caring must be from self-interest.

Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
jpf@myriad.net

-- 

"John Paul Fullerton" <jpf@mail.myriad.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>