Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Wednesday 10th March 2010 | 7 comments
In January every year I teach a 5 day writing workshop at Camp Creative. This year it was on the elements of story, which gave us a great excuse to watch movies like To Kill a Mockingbird and share our favourite stories. It was fun.
One of the most powerful things we did was watch a TED talk by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie, author of books including Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Her talk was about the danger of a single story - the limitations of stereotyping people, of making assumptions based on one piece of information or a preconception.
Of course, it's equally dangerous to do this in other arenas - when coming up with new ideas, or trying to solve a problem, for example. I've written before about assumptions and also about the elephant in the room.
We have a 15-year-old mainland Chinese student staying with us at the moment and as I prepared for his arrival last week, I realised I was continually making little assumptions about what he would like to do or eat or how he would view our habits. Turns out I was right in assuming that he would find our big black dog a bit of a challenge, but apart from that he is (surprise, surprise) his own person, complex and individual...By making assumptions, I was reducing my curiosity and my capacity for getting to know the richness and subtleties of his real self.
Where have you bought into a single story about something or someone? Where have you cut off your openness and curiosity about something?
Chimamanda Adichie's talk is really excellent, well worth the investment of 18 minutes of your time, so check it out for yourself here:
Tags: stories, assumptions, ted
Chimamanda Adichie is a fascinating woman and I enjoyed her talk about the single story. Thanks for posting it.
As an Australian who has lived in China and England and currently in Canada, I come across people who have a single story about Australians and it constantly amuses me about how little some people actually know about us or our country. No doubt there have been many times when my assumptions about something or someone has stopped me from experiencing or getting to know individuals I have come across, but I would like to think this is happening less and less the older and wiser I get!
So funny that I read yr post just now. Friends want to come and visit with intending to spend a few days at our emerging Eccola Farm. (laughing!) I am making assumptions about the weather, the temperature, my friends' capacity to deal with adverse conditions, whether they are flexible enough to use a dry composting toilet, may feel uncomfortable out there alone. Whether it is better during the holidays or outside the holidays...Instead of leaving it open to them and staying in a space of curiosity!! SUCH A GOOD POINT, Joanna. It is a pleasure to receive yr posts and to know you. And knowing, you are a really good coach!
Astrid
Thanks Michelle. It's nice to think we do get wiser and more open as we get older. It's seems to be a 50/50 between more open and more closed sometimes :)
Stories matter
Stories that we prefer to forget
Many good and true points were raised in Chimananda Adichie's speech.
The posting is much appreciated.
(everyone who speaks more than one language well has incredibly many chances for changing perspective and allowing multiple and multifacted stories)
I have coined for me: Breathing in in English, breathing out in German.... Because I am both.
thankyou...humbled Astrid
Lovely story, Astrid, and thanks for your kind comments!
Enjoyed your post Joanna. I think I'm still learning to keep an open mind with families and relatives - a person is not the same person as their sister, brother mother, etc. simply because of the family connection. Assumptions are dangerous!
Good point, Anita - I think maybe families would merit a blogpost to themselves (maybe a book, even!)