…and How We Can Overcome That
There’s an ancient Indian story about four blind men examining an elephant and attempting to define for each other what an elephant was based on this.
One held the trunk and reported that an elephant was long and tubular with two holes at one end.
One held the tail and disagreed, saying that an elephant was cone shaped and furry at the end.
One held a leg and disagreed with the first two, saying it was a tree trunk.
The fourth one held an ear and disagreed with the other three, saying it was a tent flap.
All four men were convinced they knew the truth and could not be persuaded from it, no matter how ardent the argument.
A fifth man came along and heard the four men arguing. Fortunately for them, he was not blind. He was able to help them see how they were all four correct and all four wrong at the same time. With the seeing man’s help, they were able to get to the bottom of what an elephant was, based on a more complete picture rather than on the limitations of their personal experiences.
This story illustrates why conversations about beliefs are so difficult: they are based on an individual’s lived experiences. They know what they’ve seen, felt, heard, tasted, and touched. Their survival depends on their ability to trust their own experiences, and their brain will go to great lengths to protect them from information that threatens or challenges the beliefs formed based on those experiences.
It also illustrates why beliefs need to be challenged: they aren’t always based on reality, but on the limitations of an individual’s perspective and what can be seen at the time of their experience. The more people that contribute to the conversation, the more perspectives that are available to use in assembling a complete picture.
Path To Publishing is not just an author assistance and literary service provider. And PTP Press is not just another traditional publishing imprint. We are a change agent. Our novel, The Price We Pay, is a vehicle for our plans to open the door to a novel way of engaging in conversations about race relations.
Our goal is to unite people who are willing to do the work required to assemble a more complete picture of one another, one free of the misperceptions that creep in when we view one another through the limitations of our perspectives rather than the realities of our lives.
To discover more about our work to change the way difficult conversations are held, visit https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. If you like what you see, we invite you to #JoinTheConversation.
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