Bark Less / Wag More
Jul 25th, 2008 by haroldhomeowner
My wife, Anna, recently called my attention to a bumper sticker that enjoined us to “Bark Less / Wag More”. She observed that some of us could afford to spend less time forcefully articulating our own positions and beliefs, and give a bit more attention to those of others. I do not believe that I will become a convert to the other side on any given subject, but I might profit from considering that “they”, too, might just have some credible reasons behind their positions.
I find that I, and others, sometimes assign motives to “they” according to our own subjective beliefs [prejudices?] rather than in accordance with objective evidence. Such assumed motivation almost inevitably leads to an almost paranoid anticipation / evaluation of current and future actions on the part of “they”. And if “they” view our actions through a similarly distorted lens, unnecessary distrust and antipathy often result.
Constructive dialogue will not always be possible. However, if we approach the personal interfaces with “they” under the assumption that they are operating in accordance with only nefarious motives, we will probably guarantee that constructive interaction will be impossible.
We all may need to wag more often - and bark just a bit less. I’ll try to take a lesson from our dog!
