Thoughtful Thursday: Opinions

During my 12-hour day yesterday, we received results of an employee survey. This survey was completed by less than half of us, but it asked some interesting questions. We reviewed the results during our faculty meeting yesterday, and it was interesting to see what we all thought. I found that many of my opinions were supported by my fellow co-workers, and there was something reassuring about that.

My father is becoming a rabid political follower. He has never done this before, but his social world has shrunk since retiring, and we think that there is something happening neurologically. He follows all sorts of political blogs and websites and watches specific news programs without fail. He espouses opinion like it is unalterable fact. There is no room for other points of view. He and I no longer talk about politics because of this - my views are SIGNIFICANTLY different than his, and I cannot abide it when opinions are deemed wrong.

OPINIONS CANNOT BE WRONG!

This is a familiar rant for me, and it happens to coincide with my first full 12-hour work day in several years and the exhaustion that happens when I am part of this sort of day. Tonight will also be a long work day since it is my new night for choir practice. I am exhausted. These setting events often lead me into rants about opinions...

One of the things that often happens to me, as the lone music therapist in my facility, is that I start to feel isolated and very alone. I am not someone who enjoys chit-chat, so I tend to stay in my own music therapy room, doing my job rather than standing in the hallway shooting the breeze. Because of this, I am not really well known by my co-workers. I often feel that I am very much alone.

When these feelings of isolation happen, I can get very involved with my own thoughts and opinions. My life needs a bit of a reality check, because opinions are not fact! They are opinions. Just thinking and believing something does not make those thoughts true or based in reality.

This is one of the reasons that yesterday's meeting was important for me. It reinforced some of the thoughts that I have about my workplace, and it reminded me that not everyone is in the same place in their thoughts and experiences. I need this type of feedback every so often to pull me out of my self-involved tunnel vision perception.

So, to recap...

I share some feelings and opinions with others.

Some of my feelings and opinions are not shared by others.

The important part of all of this is to realize that not everyone shares the same experiences or thoughts, and that realization is important to the growth of every person and every profession - our differences are often our strengths.

It is pretty obvious, isn't it? I need to be reminded of this often, though. It is one of those things that slips my mind as I become more and more self-involved. Time to break out of my cycle.

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