Three Strengths

Today I watched 5 people cry. That beats my record, and probably most people's. For the last day of my practicum class, we had to go around and describe three strengths each person in the room possess. After the go-around, 4 eyes were dry: mine and Matt's. 2 robot jokes later and we still sat there. Like robots.

It's hard to pinpoint what makes people cry when they're happy. Being overcome with joy isn't an unnatural thing, that's not what I'm saying. Crying is a natural reaction when you're overcome with any emotion. What's interesting was the context of the situation. People were overcome with joy after hearing people list their strengths, and describe what they're good at. For 10 minutes, we were each forced to hear what people think we're good at. And that made people cry, overcome with joy.

Why is that? Were they unaware of the strengths described? Were the strengths something they were aware of, but hearing others say them was too overwhelming? Were they unaware of these strengths, and hearing them is overwhelming?

Maybe it's more complicated than that. Maybe hearing your own strengths reinforces a lot of things at once. It reinforces that we are succeeding, that those around us like us, and that we are capable of our dreams. Maybe we're hearing things that we are hesitant to think about, and hearing them from others puts them in fruition.

Maybe it's simpler than that. Maybe people just need to hear these things.

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"This is totally a script."

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No it's not.

Once Upon a Time...

ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, is a form of CBT, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. ACT focuses on the behaviors the client has that he or she wants to change. The therapist helps the client chase the behaviors back to what emotions and thoughts the clients have when they are doing these behaviors (the CBT part). The therapist then helps the clients sit with these emotions and thoughts that cause the negative behaviors. Rather than suppress or avoid them, the client re-experiences these feelings, and learns to separate them from the behavior. Eventually, the client is able to experience these emotions and feelings without turning to their previous behaviors. The client thanks consciousness for giving them this emotion, and moves on from them.

It was only a matter of time before I was going to be hit with a script requirement that will stump me. I've been getting off easy lately: the privilege to be evaluated for the genres I do best. But I'm finally forced to write a genre I have no experience with.

GENRE: Fairy Tale
LOCATION: An Orphanage
OBJECT: Aluminum Foil

The aluminum foil is the obvious red herring. Every challenge has one. They set you up with an obvious premise and environment with two of the limits, then throw in a wrench with the third. The competition gives you a world to tell a story in, but forces you to incorporate something into your story that shouldn't be there: the wrench in the machine. It's not about moving around the wrench, building around it. Finding a way to tell a story in the environment, and throwing in the red herring at the last second. In my experience, it's about incorporating the wrench into the story. Use the wrench to tell a better story. Like ACT does with emotions, thank the judges for the wrench. Show to them you wanted the wrench in your story.

But holy shit can it be hard to do that.

Fairy tales are such a narrow genre. Formulaic to one system. An inherently good main character falls into an adventure against an inherently bad villian. The hero beats the villian, and ends up better than where the main character was. roll credits.

So should I shy from that formula? How many of the other writers are? Is it worth the risk? Does the formula stunt your creativity, and you just want to tell the best story? Or are you doing it because you aren't creative enough to tell a story in the formula?

But I love the challenge.

wearing his counseling hat. Someone tell him to take it off when he's indoors.

I spend a lot of time at Signs of Life. The coffee is cheap and the wifi is free. At this point, the baristas likely confuse me for that statue in the corner that sometimes gets up to pee.

...I guess if you say so...

My biggest beef with Signs of Life is that it's a Christian bookstore. I used to go to java break, but they started charging for their wifi. So I'm silently protesting them by not going. Starbucks has wifi that consistently craps out, plus my sister-in-law informs me that Starbucks is a corrupt business run by werewolves (or something). So I'm stuck with Signs of Life every day (except Sunday, where Signs of Life locks it's door to remind us why buying their coffee gets you into heaven). I'm hoping that my extended time here will eventually turn the whole place into a secular, heathen-filled mosh pit of gays, scientists, and harry potter fans.

...I'll have to pack my things and go...

So I sit at one of the smaller tables, with headphones jammed in my ear to tell people I'm interesting enough to be busy, but boring enough to be alone. My fingers tap on the dusty keyboard of my bulky Acer laptop. My power cord weaves through the other furniture, looking for the closest wall socket. My mug of coffee I ordered hours ago has a little bit of coffee left, but it's cold and stale at this point, forming a brown ring in the inside of the mug.

...Hit the road, Jack...

So conversations about Christianity are a little more common at Signs of Life than most coffee shops. When involving more than two people, they become loud enough that I can creep in an ear. I don't want them to know how weird I'm being by listening in, so I keep my headphones in my ears, but the music off. After doing this more times than I'd like to admit, I've found a common occurrence: groupthink.

...And don't you come back no more no more no more no more...

For those that skipped the lecture in  Psychology 101 on Social Psychology, groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs in groups of people. In a group setting, people desire group harmony and conformity, and will adept these desires into their conversations, topics, tasks, etc. We become hyper-aware of what we are saying and listening to, and apply the appropriate filter to our mouth. This eventually leads to irrational conclusions, slower completion of tasks than individuals, and suppressed creativity. Groups of people, when assigned the exact same task as individuals, complete at a slower rate, and can even miss necessary details.

...Hit the road, Jack....

I hear groupthink a lot in these conversations. They're easy to pick up on. The silence.

...And don't you come back no more no more no more no more...