{"id":40924,"date":"2025-02-27T20:30:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T04:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40924"},"modified":"2025-02-27T20:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T04:30:18","slug":"help-me-self-differentiate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/help-me-self-differentiate\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Me Self Differentiate!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading a failure of nerve by Edwin Freeman[1]<\/a> was encouraging to me. One of the main reasons I am pursuing this Doctorate is my excitement for adventure. I work in a field that can very much get stuck in its own orientation[2]<\/a>. In efforts to make change we end up seeing a lot of tired people trying harder at doing the same thing[3]<\/a>. My excitement comes from the hope to ask new questions and find an innovative direction past the boundaries.<\/p>\n

It is not surprising when Friedman writes of America being in regression.\u00a0 Especially after reading the articles on what social media is doing to our younger generation. We have a society full of anxiety, we blame and are lacking in development of young leaders[4]<\/a>. A societal and emotional regression doesn\u2019t look like going back but going down.[5]<\/a> Our polarized culture that refuses to see others point of views becomes incapable of objectivity.[6]<\/a> We hold more tightly to our groups ideas and protect against others infiltrating our belief system. The responses of maladapted anxious groups do not take responsibility for themselves, instead, they put the fault in those leading.[7]<\/a> It makes me feel anxious thinking about the direction American society is going. Will we be brave enough to set a new course.<\/p>\n

I love learning and knowledge. It can become like an addiction to me. Friedman describes that data and information consumption can look like substance abuse[8]<\/a>.\u00a0 I do find myself becoming detached as I intake knowledge and it was quite an eyeopener to see that knowing a lot does not result in success.\u00a0 It is how we emotionally process that can bring change. We can not understand our self without understanding our relationship with others.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, I am to the part I really what to process. \u00a0I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concepts of self- differentiation. If any feel like they have a clear picture, please would comment with clarity for me. I often struggle with the individual and collective nature of how society works. Even in reading scripture I find it hard to know how much is about me and how much is about us.\u00a0 For example, Paul writes often in his letters about the church being the body[10]<\/a> (a metaphor Friedman applies his principles through, such as the mind and immune system).\u00a0 There seems to be a deep togetherness and inseparability from the whole.\u00a0 But then there is the action of each part of the body doing its supposed to do. It further complicates it when I think of the automatic systems of the body that we do not have control over- the heart beating, the lungs breathing. The virus and the immune response stand as an example our self and our relationship with toxic others[11]<\/a>. I love using the physical body as a picture to how we function socially, but I am having a hard time differentiating. Am I meant to see myself as a part of the whole or to set myself apart? Friedman writes, \u201cIt is only the emergence of self in its leadership that can enable any society, family, institution, or nation to evolve out of a regression\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0Everything about this statement feels wrong to me.\u00a0 Though I recognize that boundaries are important to separate myself from coming under other people\u2019s burdens and stress, I still struggle to want to individualize. The ideas of \u201cgoing it alone\u201d and detaching from relational binds are not appealing to me.\u00a0 I sure don\u2019t want to endure in crisis or sit in my stress alone.\u00a0 Now, I know I\u2019m being a bit dramatic. I do see some of the benefits Friedman writes in his self-differentiation list[13]<\/a>, but it still rubs me the wrong way.\u00a0 Am I too enmeshed in togetherness that I can\u2019t see clearly.\u00a0 I truly would love help in understanding this.<\/span><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Friedman, Edwin H..\u00a0A Failure of Nerve : Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (10th Anniversary, Revised Edition)<\/em>, Church Publishing, Incorporated, 2017.\u00a0ProQuest Ebook Central<\/em>, https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/georgefox\/detail.action?docID=6793400.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 40<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 41<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 55<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 56<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 64<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 71<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 88<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Friedman 2017,109<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> 1 Corinthians 12<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Friedman 2017,120-121<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 136<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Friedman 2017, 136<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading a failure of nerve by Edwin Freeman[1] was encouraging to me. One of the main reasons I am pursuing this Doctorate is my excitement for adventure. I work in a field that can very much get stuck in its own orientation[2]. In efforts to make change we end up seeing a lot of tired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[2651,3405,236],"class_list":["post-40924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afailureofnerve","tag-dlgp4","tag-friedman","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40924","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\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40925,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40924\/revisions\/40925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}