character...
ive decided to share this little thing that i realise it's kind of true for me. if you've read my post about the east timor trip, you'd have come across the part where i mentioned i was reading a book-
The Tipping Point. well, i've gathered something from one of the research mentioned and now understand why i am this way.
The Psychologist Walter Mischel writes:
" When we observe a woman who seems hostile and fiercely independent some
of the time but passive, dependent and feminine on other occasions, our reducing
valve usually makes us choose between the two syndromes. We decide that one
pattern is in the service of the other, or that both are in the service of a
third motive. She must be a really castrating lady with a facade of
passivity--or perhaps she is a warm, passive-dependent woman with a surface
defense of aggressiveness. But perhaps nature is bigger than our concepts and it
is possible for the lady to be hostile, fiercely independent, passive,
dependent, feminine, aggressive, warm, castrating person all-in-one. Of course
which of these she is at any particular moment would not be random or
capricious--it would depend on who she is with, when, how, and much, much more.
But each of these aspects of her self may be a quite genuine and real aspect of
her total being."
Character, then, isn't what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to
be. It isn't a stable, easily identifiable set of closely related traits, and it
only seems that way because of a glitch in the way our brains are
organized. Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and
interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on
circumstance and context. The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our
environment.
well, i think i would quite agree with this finding. yes.. but i will not forget that first and foremost,
"character is an outward reflection of an inward connection." whatever kind of relationship i have with God is the 'environment/circumstance/context' that determines the character i portray. i guess i can say it this way..
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P.S. it's raining all day today. and another thing, i can't find a good christmas song!
sarahluikitleng`
braces;
small&handy bible;