My lasting impression of
this class will be of Emotional Intelligence.
EI, for whatever reason, appeals to my sense of logic and pragmatic
leadership more than the other flavors of personality inventories I’ve taken
through the years. With its focus on an
extra processing step prior to reaction, it’s really not news. “You do control the thoughts that follow an
emotion, and you have a great deal of say in how you react to an emotion—as
long as you are aware of it,”
(Kindle Locations 330-331). This line forms a thesis; it names a helpful
(necessary?) component to productive human interaction. Where other inventories create awareness,
EI’s emphasis on ongoing self-awareness makes it a more useful tool for
me.
Borda writes in Salsa, Soul, and Spirit “The realization of full democracy includes the vision of a pluralistic society,” (p. 3). I recognize a certain inevitability to that notion; recently, discomfort with “the other” has dominated discussion. However, as the world shrinks and we encounter each other more broadly, homogeneity will be reduced to increasingly shrinking pools of population. While we may need to be aware of lingering hesitancy towards the unfamiliar, we are certainly called to prepare for service to an increasingly diverse community.