Puzzling
Paul J. Croft
Facilitating Authentic Conversations by Education, Transformation, & Science (Living FACETS)
Solving #Puzzles are something that many consider to be an experience of intrigue, one that some find quite enjoyable. Whether a #Riddle, #Forensic #Investigation, or #Mystery #Story; it is a #Challenge accepted. Others may loathe a #Puzzle full of complications, contradictions, and hidden answers put together from a set of related and irrelevant parts. One #Mindset finds mirth, worth, and #Growth in the exercise, another disdain, anger, and annoyance.
-- A #Teaching opportunity for #Students & #Professionals for development? --
Some #Puzzling is more than the assembly of a collection of pieces in the right order to complete a picture or three-dimensional construct. Methods vary from person to person and depend on their discernments. But when considering the pieces of any #Puzzle, especially when that puzzle concerns the innate persona of someone? That is a process of creating comprehensive insights using many inputs of data, underlying points of view, and inspiration.
(0) A Collection of Jigsaw Memories
When completed, a puzzle provides a picturesque landscape. A mural vividly depicting a life according to its past, present, future, and final moments. More than a subjective review of that life, it is a mural that portrays a wide spectrum of experiences that illuminate the true colour of that life. It contains details, events, and nuance. A storyline of overlapping and scaffolding sequences of living as characterized by that one person as perceived differently by many.
-- Perspectives, Points of View, & Positions? That's “Me, Myself, & I” --
Indeed, the same considerations apply to those we meet, interact with, and see on the #Job every day. It includes those providing services, at the interface of purchases, and during leisure and #Vacation time. Yet, do these encounters offer or reveal #Truth and #Reality without ‘playing games’? Or do they present a game of puzzling contradictions and insights about us and the people we engage with? How do those ‘answers’ rely upon us versus the other person?
(1) Cross Words
Is it puzzling then that a mural is created and interpreted directly by those who are a part of a person’s life? After all, our perspectives of someone's life are linked, shared, and stored-away according to our memories – not theirs. Any hurts, joys, injustices, and misgivings are naturally contained in their process of living and interacting with us. No matter the time or situation, they carry their own pain and misfortune personally relative to ours. We usually carry theirs only situationally or peripherally.
-- Being empathetic or sympathetic is, of course, very personal. --
It is in processing our own perceptions 'in the moment' that we tend to forget that the filters used for understanding and interpretation are modulated through projections of ourselves. They are from the outside of the person's experience based upon our vantage point. These depend upon our age and stage, likes and dislikes, expectations, and motivations. Such perceptions are also different from those of others – they are not equivalent among observers, participants, and spectators – these create a collection of objective and subjective viewpoints.
(2) Connectors & Dissection
Then how do we relate our personal convictions (and those of others) to someone's life experiences and moments at #Work or within a #Team? Theirs is a painter's palate, with many layers and hues that carry impressions of themselves. We did not see the brush strokes – nor the curing – that brought the picture of ‘them’ to life at any moment in their lives. We did not encounter every good or harrowing moment they lived – truly a puzzle of multidimensional and interdimensional pieces. Not all are readily related in words and pictures.
-- Their puzzle (and our own) is not created alone nor at one 'place' in time. --
While the many pieces do indeed fit together, they are first etched and placed according to someone's hopes and dreams for themselves and others. Their puzzling occurs throughout a lifetime as ours unfolds. Our pieces are reshaped, trimmed, and expanded to accommodate our ever-evolving relationship with them and others. The evolution of these over time means that it is difficult to finish that process until their time with us passes. It means that a holistic accounting requires thought-filled reflections to complete their picture – and ours – accurately.
(3) Enigmatic Escapades
Our pieces ultimately "fall into place" so that we see our contributions more clearly, and those of others. It is then that our puzzling takes-up its final disposition. To understand the puzzle created according to what we have received, given, and shared; and as to what we rejected, held, and refused. Not only with anyone, but with all those we encountered. That revelation occurs from among the misunderstandings, misperceptions, and misinterpretations of all prior interactions – and those yet to occur.
领英推荐
-- Everyday Puzzling is not Puzzling Every day. --
It includes making new connections and requires colouring according to shared futures. It acknowledges that we are imperfect receivers of inputs, from those of sight and sound to those of the heart and mind. We are imperfect in understanding or realizing the depth, reasoning, and nuances that brought us to a given moment with others – and them to us. Such perceptions are coloured by our interactions, beliefs, wants, fears, and care for an individual – usually relative to our situations, not theirs.
(4) Building a Mural of Duality: Shared & Opposing Viewpoints
Identifying our pieces in the mural of others is not simple. It requires both #Mindfulness and #Mindset. These are critical in providing the necessary insight as to how our pieces relate to others in completing the shared puzzle. That allows us to witness and understand where and when our pieces will fit theirs, and theirs ours. At that juncture in #Responsibility we can find completion and closure – a jointly created living mural of many colours and moving parts.
-- Those living pieces portray a scene for perpetuity. --
An enigma is found and unlocked using the edge pieces and every interlocking piece in between – whether jagged, asymmetric, or irregular – and depicts a final image. It is – and is not – of our own making. A collective effort, that mural of shared lives is created regardless of agreement, intention, or sense of duty. It is the whole of efforts by sentinels and stakeholders who apply the final strokes. Their completion of the mural reveals the essence of creation as first put forth by those before, and their contributions to those living puzzle pieces thereafter.
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Background and Information:
Paul J. Croft on LI & ResearchGate
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Disclaimer:
The content herein, and the views and opinions expressed by the author, are intended ("bona fides") for educational and personal use and are part of the author's intellectual property. All information posted is without any guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content or any summations expressed. The information herein is provided on an "as is" basis, is not a substitute for professional or paid advice or guidance and may be used at the user's own risk. All rights reserved.
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