First Weekly Meeting Report

Yesterday my support team met for lunch to discuss my first week.  The topic of the "stupid malt" was dispensed with rather quickly with all agreeing that my calling a malt stupid did NOT constitute saying something negative about SOMEONE.  They rejected the argument put forward earlier by my wife that since the malt could not be stupid, I must have been making a negative statement about myself for taking the big bite that gave me the brain freeze.  So with that decision the score at one week stands at Negative Comments 2, Dave ?  Well I guess there is no way to score the times I did not say a negative comment.  Lets just say that only 2 negative comments in a week is an INCREDIBLE improvement.  The 2 comments were both within the first 12 hours of my attempt, were not heard by anyone, and can be found in earlier posts.  The other 2 questions I had for the support group had to do with the post titled "The Westboro Baptist Church Test" and also about the dreams I've had about making negative comments during the past week.  Most of the groups conversation tended to revolve around how to perform one's civic duty without saying anything negative about anyone, no matter how you perceive them.  James Carter, our mental health expert, said it best when he said the challenge is to "Refute an argument without negativity".  Mike Smith, the minister, pointed out that in the case of Westboro Baptist Church, he agrees with me that the church seems to thrive on people's responses to their actions, so perhaps the most virtuous thing to do is to not give them a response.  He also agreed that standing with the victims of their actions would also be virtuous.  I might point out that so far Mike is the only member of the team that has couched the process of this experiment in terms of "virtue".  He also gave me reading and a writing assignments for this week.  He said since I continue to refer to this resolution as an experiment, I am to write my hypothesis for the expected outcome.  My reading assignment is Philippians 4.  It seemed the group approved of my response to the Westboro Baptist Church event and there was a great deal of philosophical discussion around the idea of civic duty and how we communicate.  The last topic of discussion was my dreams.  James Carter took the lead in this area and explained that when I awaken with a sense of fear of having said negative things it is an example of the most common dream people have, that of not being prepared or not being able to handle a task.  He likened it to a student dreaming that they are taking a test they haven't studied for.  He went on to explain that I am attempting to make a change in my life and change creates anxiety.  That anxiety is most likely the cause of the dreams.  Nice to know what I am going through is normal and to be expected.  These guys are really great to give of their time and talents to help me in this project.  I hope they gain something from it, I know I am.