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My goodness! This book offered many answers to my professional, academic, ministry, and personal life.<\/p>\n
PROFESSIONAL:<\/strong> As an artist, I don\u2019t deal with many of these aspects, other then relationship-building. I wonder, however, if there is a separate category for the way artists might fit into this. I do find that artisans have a very different way of looking at life and relationships, and I wonder if art crosses all boundaries of culture.<\/p>\n MINISTRY:<\/strong> I wonder what the connection might be to high-context, relationship-based global individuals and those who suffer from trauma. Years ago, my husband and I volunteered at a homeless shelter in downtown LA, and I experienced something similar. We would cook a meal once a month and then encourage our volunteers to pick a table and go and sit and talk with the women. Every month I would sit at a table with this woman who barely looked at me. If I asked her a question, she would grunt an answer. Several years went by, and God just kept nudging me to sit at her table (and there was always an available seat). One day, out of the blue, we were prepping a meal in the kitchen, and she came down, seeking me out to have a conversation! What?! And then the golden moment occurred. She made a joke and gently punched me in the arm. Internally I was doing a happy dance. It took four years to get there, and it happened! I left there rejoicing to my husband, \u201cI\u2019m in! I\u2019m finally in!\u201d<\/p>\n ACADEMIC:<\/strong> First, I realize, after reading Meyer\u2019s book, that all the mixed messages of being biracial make sense. It doesn\u2019t make the inner struggle any more comfortable, but there is a bit more awareness. Two very different cultures colliding in one household has brought confusion when approaching the scriptures, but reading this began the process of untangling.<\/p>\n Second, this statement was me reaching up to turn on the light. \u201cEffective leadership often relies on the ability to persuade others to change their systems, adopt new methods of working, or adjust to new trends in markets, technologies, or business models. So if you are a manager of a team whose members come from a culture different from your own, learning to adapt your persuasive technique to your audience can be crucial\u201d (101).<\/p>\n In the context of my future research, how do I help other biracials adjust their lens so that the Scriptures make sense? The Scriptures cannot be changed, but adjusting the lens can be helpful for those who identify with being 100% in two different cultures. \u201cBut when considering the differences between Asian and Western thought patterns, we need to use a different lens\u201d (104).<\/p>\n Third, blending in the art form is much like listening to the air. \u201cCommunicating messages without saying them directly is a deep part of our culture, so deep that we do it without even realizing it\u201d (33).<\/p>\n PERSONAL:<\/strong> Meyer, Erin. The Culture Map (INTL ED). PublicAffairs. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My goodness! This book offered many answers to my professional, academic, ministry, and personal life. PROFESSIONAL: As a co-owner of a business, many light bulbs went on! This helps me understand and have grace, a bit better, for people who communicate, decide, trust, and disagree differently than myself. On the flip side, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1370,1621,219,1602,35,1622,1429,1434],"class_list":["post-24060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art-and-theology","tag-biracial","tag-diversity","tag-dminlgp10","tag-leadership","tag-lightbulb-moment","tag-meyer","tag-the-culture-map","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24060"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24065,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24060\/revisions\/24065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs a co-owner of a business, many light bulbs went on! This helps me understand and have grace, a bit better, for people who communicate, decide, trust, and disagree differently than myself. On the flip side, I realize that my style can have a positive and\/or negative effect on business based on all the eight categories that Meyer listed and described. I will be reflecting upon this going forward.<\/p>\n
\nHaving been a missionary to Russia, there were so many aha moments as I read this, realizing the explanations as to why activities were planned the way they were. One thing that seems highlighted is the fact that Russians are high context, affective, relationship-based people. It took me several years of continually being present before one of my Russian friends opened up, but when he did, he vomited out his life. It was a little surprising to me that we went from 0-60 at one coffee meeting when years prior we had just coasted at 30. I knew that building trust was an important aspect, but I didn\u2019t realize that it would come to fruition so dramatically.<\/p>\n
\nThe two books for this week — \u201cThe Culture Map\u201d by Erin Meyer and \u201cBeing Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error\u201d by Kathryn Schulz — have given me a lot of inspiration. Last week I was feeling a bit of anxiety, but these two books are helping me to see the light through the forest.<\/p>\n
\nSome of the conversations and struggles my husband and I run into seemed to be highlighted when I was reading Meyer. On the one hand, it\u2019s easy to point to the idea that we come from different family structures, but throw in cultural differences, nuances of communication and disagreement styles, and there is a lot of frustration. I loved the Bahamian Proverb \u201cTo engage in conflict, one does not need to bring a knife that cuts, but a needle that sews\u201d (218).<\/p>\n