Sentimental Sunday: Post 2137, March 10, 2019 - Cultural Considerations

I have to admit that I am enjoying these glimpses into what past me was thinking about in various times of my blog. Today's post, #2137, is from March 10, 2019. You can find that post here.

In 2019, I was thinking about how we experience each other and how we are perceived by others. This was really spurred on by several events that happened in the music therapy and bigger worlds. In 2019, my country was run by a person who I feel is not interested at all in anyone other than himself. We were splitting into "us" and "them" factions, spurred on by a megalomaniac who found that he could do things to hurt everyone but himself when we were distracted by the "others." We were in that sort of situation in the music therapy world as well - well, not the megalomaniac leader bit but definitely the "us" and "them" factions. The ramifications of things that happened in 2018 at our conference are still with us. I still do not understand everything that everyone is feeling, but I continue to try to understand.

This post was the last one for my Cultural Considerations series. I took some of the things that I heard about and thought about them from a place of recognizing biases (I hope) and making changes in my personal and professional interactions. This work on myself continues as I believe that I will never be fully aware of how others perceive me and my "ways of doing things" whether those things be intentional or not.

In the years since this post, I have continued my attempts to expand my views on what does and does not cause harm to others, cause misunderstandings, and drives us apart rather than together. I participate in conversations when I feel like I can contribute something other than listening. I try to focus on listening and trying to understand as much as I can.

The biggest conclusion that I came to in this series is that I cannot control how others perceive me. I know that I do things that would be considered microaggressions for some. When I know that specific actions are microaggressions, I strive to eliminate those actions from my way of interacting with others, but I can't stop interacting with people because my actions MIGHT be considered inappropriate by the people around me. If I had that type of mindset, I would be incapable of interacting with someone on the off-chance that they would find my interactions to be inappropriate.

I strive to figure out how to be a better person and a better music therapist for my clients. How do you navigate this world? What resources have helped you understand the challenges of other humans on this planet? I am always looking for additional books, ideas, writers, blogs, art works, or other resources that expand my vision beyond my own experience. I would love to talk to someone else about all of this.

Happy Sentimental Sunday, all.