Greetings!! My name is Scott Haywood, and I am the English Professor that Dave has selected to help him on his journey to "never say anything negative about anyone ever". To give you some background about Dave and me, we have known each for more than thirty years. Our relationship has been strong and close, especially the past five years. Dave and I frequently enter into philosophical conversations, which is one of the the reasons why he chose me for the project. So what is my task on this project? I am to attempt to interpret what is really saying something negative! Right, I got the easy job!! So I will attempt to be the deciding factor as to whether Dave is speaking negative!! My first analysis? Inanimate objects cannot have their feelings hurt, so the malt was stupid!! I will provide my insight in the journey, and I must say.... it has made me examine what I say about others. I will attempt to post weekly and give you my two-cents on Dave's progress!!
-Scott Haywood
Well I must say I am encouraged by Scott's early ruling on the malt incident. I may have to let him inform my wife after our meeting on Friday so as to keep me free from any negative comments! Scott's observation that my attempt has made him examine what he says about others, has been a comment I have heard from several people in my life. I know this process is really making me think, at least when my brain is not frozen by a malt. I can honestly say that to the best of my knowledge I have not said anything negative about anyone now for 5 days. One interesting thing is that I have been waking up in the mornings with a sense of fear that I have been making negative comments. I think I am having dreams in which I make negative comments, but they seem to be on the edge of my memory when I wake and I cannot recall them. I will discuss this with the mental health professional at our meeting of Friday. Perhaps the dreams are my minds way of discharging negative thoughts I am not acting on during the day? Maybe it is just that my subconcious has not caught up with my concious efforts to change my behavior and.... Oh well I don't have to figure it out. That is why I have the team to help me.
I first responded to Dave's blog on FB, and then realized I should respond here instead. Dave, you've certainly set up an interesting resolution. :) But, that'll be what keeps it fresh. I'll be looking forward to keeping up with the blog.
ReplyDeleteI think Emily's response you mentioned in an earlier posting was most interesting, and I can see what she means--not that a person being negative is necessarily a good thing, but how many people do you have that sarcastic banter with? It'll be hard to stop that, I would think, when it's not really a true negative feeling toward the person. But, you'd have to try to curb that as well to help get in the habit of avoiding the other. Very interesting.
What do the rest of you think?
Marlys,
ReplyDeleteI will ask my family to share their thoughts on here now that the experiment has started. I haven't talked to Emily about it again. It might be interested to see if she still has the same fear.