Australia Day means different things to different people
Australia Day has become a day of conflicting feelings, attitudes and actions, to the extent that even nuclear families or couples are divided. How is your family coping?
Respectful Dialogue is the key
The more we listen to others, the greater informed we become and there is less conflict 🙂 Fresh solutions can be generated when everyone’s ideas can be expressed and heard fully. This means putting ourselves in the other’s shoes and looking through their lense for awhile. If we listen long enough, or ask them about the feelings that fuel their opinion/perspective we can understand how and why they see things the way they do. This is validation 🙂 When we reach this point in our active listening, it is easy to empathise 🙂
Compromise
Empathy doesn’t mean giving in, or even agreeing with their perspective – it is just respecting the validity of their perspective and feelings. It creates space for a new compromise which embraces both sides’ perspectives, feelings and needs. Australia Day’s date is the biggest sticking point when people stick to rigid uninformed views. When there is a full discussion of all perspectives, it is clear that a new date may suit more wholistic range of what it is to celebrate about being Australian.
Wholistic, future – oriented meaning of Australia Day
Beginning with what it means to the people of the country can lead us to a solution which embraces all those meanings and creates a wholistic identity of what it is to live in our multi-cultural land. What does it mean to you to be an Australian?
What does it mean to be Australian?
Today it looks like we are a divided nation, at war with each other. Imago therapy principles as described above can guide the creation of a strong united identity which gives us a community goal to focus on. This will generate appropriate celebrations, instead of sending so much money up in smoke where the masses are passively silent. Follow the links to two major heartening steps about Sydney and Melbourne 🙂 Imagine participatory dances all around the foreshore in cooler weather, where we could move around and try different cultures’ dances, food, drink and clothing?