Reflections

When I begin to reflect upon the Creativity & Multicultural Communication course, it was a steep learning curve for me. As I come to the close of my journey with this course I wish I would have contributed more to the overall direction of the coursework. Since we began this semester my life has been crazy. I began to pastor a church in the Philadelphia suburbs in February and I did not anticipate how much my life would change. My schedule has been insane and my focus has not always been where it should have been. But one thing out of the many things I have learned in this unorthodox course is that Communication is multifaceted. I have always understood that being husband and father but I took on a brand new meaning since I became a pastor. Everyone does not possess the same communicative skill set. In our communicating we bring all our experiences and the diversity of experiences. So there can be a great chasm between what is said and what is heard.

While I Tweet and Facebook for my own entertainment purposes, I had a difficult time grasping using those mechanisms as “textbooks” for learning. I have always tried to keep my academic life and social networking life complete separate. This class shattered my ideology. This class taught about the connectivity of communication. There doesn’t have to be compartmentalization of how we communicate.

Lastly, this class caused me to start blogging again. My wife always encouraged me to share my perspective with whatever audience that would listen. I was hesitant but through this class I had the opportunity to share some of my views and I got some google feedback. (Especially while venting about my struggles with the class LOL.) This class was extremely different for me and I would take this again. The key is to stay engaged. Communication means noting if all parties are not engaged. It doesn’t matter if your Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, or having Google hangouts. Engagement is crucial. #CMC11

Looking Ahead

The story of is told of an eight year old boy who looked forward to Saturday because his father promised to take him fishing, weather permitting. But Saturday morning dawn rain and dreary, and it appeared that the rain would continue throughout the day. The child moped around the house, looking out the windows and grumbling, “It seems the Lord could have chosen a better to make it rain.” His father tried to explain how badly the rain was needed but the son was adamant. “It just isn’t right the son repeated. By mid-afternoon the rain had stopped. The boy and his father quickly loaded their gear into the car and headed off to the lake. As anticipated, the fish were biting and they came home with a cooler full of fish.  There were flounder, trout,  bass, and kinds of fish. At dinner, when some of the fish were served, the boy’s mother asked him to say grace. He did and concluded his prayer by saying, “And Lord, if I sounded grumpier earlier it was because I couldn’t see far enough ahead. 

There is something to be said about the ability to look ahead. Looking ahead causes you to have something to look forward too instead settling for what's you already have. Looking ahead allows us to get a sneak peak, a glimpse into the larger picture. In order to look ahead one must have vision and not just sight. It’s easy to be held captive by what’s happening now when can’t see far enough ahead. When you have the ability to anticipate what’s up ahead, it will empower you to hold out until your change comes. And that’s the great differential between having sight and having vision.  Sight can only see what can be seen but vision can see what can’t be seen. Sight can only show you what is but vision can show what shall be. And your gonna need vision if you’re going the face the unknown.

 

This course has taught me to look up head even when I don't understand what I'm looking for or looking at. In this academic journey, I must continue to look up ahead. #CMC11

A Fresh Approach

John and Joe are construction workers and they decide to start eating lunch together. They agree to meet at 12:00PM on Monday. They sit down and begin there to eat. John enjoys his lunch but Joe is visibly upset. Joe says, “I hate peanut butter sandwiches”!! The next day at 12:00PM they take out their lunches and began to eat. John enjoys his lunch but Joe is visibly upset. Joe says, “I hate peanut butter sandwiches”!! The next day at 12:00PM they take out their lunches and began to eat. John enjoys his lunch but Joe is visibly upset. Joe says, “I hate peanut butter sandwiches”!! This time John cannot take it anymore. He says to Joe, “We don’t you ask your wife to make you something else for your lunch.” Joe responds by saying, “Don’t bring my wife into this. I make my own sandwiches.”!

This course has challenged me to learn to make my own educational sandwiches. I have decided to project my thoughts via my blog more often. My wife often tells me that everything I write can a dissertation. But that is not the point of creative communication. The point of creative communication is to connect, inform, and inspire. The way how my mind works can cause me to miss out on this. I read some of the other post and blog entries and I must say that I think to myself that I am not measuring up. My specialty would be to write research paper or an essay around race, religion, sports, African-American history, pop culture, or music. But a fresh approach for me is to simply engage in the process and not try to be so ahhhhhh I don’t know, you tell me. #CMC11

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I Get It!! (I think?) /CMC11

This class and format is a trip!! Even though I am very active on Twitter @thegroveness and on Facebook, connecting this to a curriculum has been a tremendous learning curve for me. As a person who works within a structured format, the fluidity of this course has been something else. At the beginning, it was hard me for to imagine that my social media activity can be translated into a seedbed for learning in the college setting. In reality, the social media landscape is the new communicative space. It’s has changed the way we frame our communication skills, relationship skills, and our cognitive abilities. I originally viewed my social media as an outlet and completely separate from my academic life. This independent study has taught me that social media and academics can be in concert with one another. Instead of textbooks, lectures, syllabi, and research papers, we blog, tweet, and facebook each other and this is the work of the course. The theoretical approach of creative communication is what I expected to be involved in. In this course, I jumped right into the praxis of the creative communication. This kind of hands on learning has been beneficial for me because it removed me form a place of academic familiarity.  Even though I’m struggling, I think I get it