RockStarYoga
  • perspective: why
  • musings
  • teaching: where, when + which
  • private yoga
  • rasayana: bodywork
  • mentoring + mental arts
  • ceremony + ritual
  • bio: who + what
  • education: what + how
  • connect: talk to me
  • snapshots
    • Yoga Advance - Isla Mujeres 2014
    • Rockstarring
    • Planet K
    • Play-asana
    • Students, Teachers, Friends, Inspirations
    • Easter Island, Patagonia, Chile
    • Turkey, Anatolia, Cappadocia
    • Isla Mujeres
    • Tulum, Yucatan, Coba
  • videos
  • offerings

Is Being Right Always Right?

5/6/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Hola! Some quick thoughts on being right today - I'm blessed to have had a great week down in the Yucatan, just doing yoga, teaching yoga, and yoga-ing with the natural world.

Now, back at it and in the groove, getting ready to start back on a fairly regular schedule again, tomorrow. I'm very excited to be back to teaching, and grateful thus far at the amount of support folks have expressed. Just hope to see some bodies show up and find a regular practice again, if it serves.

So, down there, I wasn't off the grid too far, obviously; I blogged, did some videos, wrote an article and made fun of a book. Deservedly so, I made fun of that shite, and in doing so, I apparently really triggered some folks. I get it, my humor was bitingly sarcastic, and the venue was really wide, and the title of the piece was enough to get attention. A setting for a perfect storm, and given the media, a flame up.

At one point, I tried to answer the comments; I don't doubt the sincerity of the feelings and the arguments, they just weren't what I was making. My sarcasm was limited, in my mind, to the very first world problem of bad prose, buzz media and 'naughtiness'.

In that what I wrote solicited so many hurt feelings and outrage, I simply apologized for how my choice of words was easy to interpret and how that made me sorry. I didn't necessarily apologize for my message or the content, just how it made people feel.

And that got someone pissed off enough to write me and try to assail my character. I tell you all this for interest not of that story, but for what it's like to be on the internet, to have opinions and express them, the seeming power of the anonymity of posting on line, and the insult this person took because they thought I had apologized and surrender my right.

One of the things I asked for in the comments was for folks to dialog, but not insult, not hate, but rather to question and read and listen. Not much of that happens, but we know the medium. 

For your consideration... can you apologize for how something you expressed made someone feel without negating what you said? Is it one or the other, and does apologizing symbolize capitulation? What do you think? I know we're all in for a lot of disagreement, and if we want to make positive change, it will become necessary to be able to respectfully, non-violently disagree - create space to listen, to create whatever compromise may be, and move forward in dignity and respect.

That's what I'm thinking about today - new ways of dialoguing; maintaining the integrity of my perspective while allowing for others. Looking for the similarities and the congruities and not the fragmentary issues. Hoping to figure out how to summon the common passion for change into building something, rather than tearing down something else.

What's that mean to you - think on it, give thanks and praise!

2 Comments
Liz link
5/6/2012 02:39:58 am

We all know the saying about opinions and everyone having them... but the inner webs have created a space for anyone and everyone to share and poo-poo on others...

my intention in writing or talking is always good, to express my POV, but I soon learned that people don't "hear" what I say or my intention... People hear what they want, whether that is good or bad, doesn't matter.. written in black and white, people will pick and choose what it is that they are reading. I can only apologize for a misunderstanding, for possibly not verbalizing correctly what I was trying to convey.. but never for trying to shed light. Maybe the best lesson is, there are somethings I just don't share or discuss online, mostly because it's not a two way conversation.. it doesn't hold any part of me (except what others want to see). I'm sorry that it turned into a storm instead of what it was.. a book that was blah, read on a vacation.. xo~liz

Reply
Mary Jo Schick link
5/6/2012 03:34:53 am

I too have learned the hard way that offhand comments (especially on fb) can have major consequences - and sarcasm definitely does not translate well on fb. On the other side, folks have to decide in advance to not get to bent about stuff - if you feel it rising, check it. Pull those "personal toes" back, get them out of the way or they are sure to be tromped upon!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Chrispy - Bhagat Singh

    Random thoughts I've had, while teaching, about the teachings, about my teaching, and while talking about teaching.

    Connect with me:
    Facebook: 
    chrispy bhagat singh
     Facebook:
    RockStarYoga
    Facebook:
    RaSaYana
    YouTube:

    chrispy bhagat singh
    Instagram:
    petrastella
    Twitter: 
    petrastella

    Email: 
    rockstar@rockstaryoga.us

    Picture

    Archives

    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All
    Anusara
    Asana
    Asana Practice
    Brain
    Calendar
    Chakras
    Challenge
    Collaboration
    Community
    Compassion
    Discernment
    Experience
    Happiness
    Holy Days
    Lent
    Love
    Magic
    Mindfulness
    Nyt
    Observance
    Patanjali
    Practice
    Resources
    Shadow
    Shine
    Sutras
    Teachers
    Teaching
    Yoga

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.