A quick story about robots and truth.
I really like efficiency. I like things to work well the first time. I also do not enjoy recurring tasks.
We have a human sized dog who sheds like a maniac. His name is @hikarlthegreat and I love him. He’d shed less if we brushed him more.
But nonetheless our floor is covered in dog hair and dirt/dust from outside since our windows are always open. #luckywelivehawaii
There are often days where I’d vacuum a few times and every time I’ll fill up the vacuum hopper.
Jess gave me a robot vacuum for valentines day. I had mentioned getting one a few times but initially she wasn’t into the idea. Finding places for things to go is difficult in our place. But she saw a neighbor had one and noticed that it went under the furniture (where we never vacuum) and was sold.
It arrived yesterday and I sent it on its maiden voyage. I forgot to attach the side brushes but it still sucked up a ton of stuff. I was amazed that when I plugged in the dock it found its way back to it to charge as soon as I plugged it in.
It does a really good job using its side brushes to get in the corners where a regular vacuum doesn’t get.
Karl did a lot of barking at it at first. And my son was hesitant about it, but I acted really excited about it and told him how cool it was.
Last night before bed, I told “A” to go into his room and bring some PJ’s. To which he stalled. I had to ask him a few times. I was about to tell him we couldn’t watch a video before bed. But then I realized interspersed with his stalling was a question. “Are you going to run the robot?” I thought he was just changing the subject. He didn’t want to go in his room and have the unpredictability of the robot moving without him knowing. He wasn’t intentionally being disobedient, he was hesitant because of the unknown. I could have gotten loud and taken away video time before bed, but I’m pretty sure the Holy Spirit helped me realize what was really going on.
“A” Must have gone into his room to get his PJ’s when I first asked him to do so and then saw the machine charging and doing its “breathing” with its light.(Why do we assign even more human characteristics to robots?)
And why do robots intrinsically feel weird even to kids and to my dog.
I wonder what new technology felt this weird previously. When cars started being more common was there a sense of unease at the disruptive technology?
Or do robots feel strange because of it’s ability to do things without a human? And is it strange that humans create robots in their own image.
Anyway, after realizing what was really going on, I assured “A” that the robot would not go on unless we pushed the on button. He said okay, and went and got his PJ’s.
I’m realizing in life that there is often a layer beneath behavior, that’s the cause, motivation, catalyst for the action. And as leaders (parenting is really just the ultimate form of leadership) we need to always be asking, what’s really going on?
Be investigative, but don’t assign motive through assumption.
When we can figure out what’s going on in that sometimes subconscious level we can deal then deal with the truth.
Sometimes asking the right questions, or slowing down a bit and listening can help us see and show others what’s really going on too so it can actually be dealt with.
Jumping to conclusions and assigning our own narrative is dangerous in these situations, especially to children, who might just hear an alternative story and go start believing that.
How we perceive life is so important, it’s scary that we can live our whole lives with an incorrect perception and live like thats a reality.
We can also shape other peoples lives through suggestive words and assigning motives that may or may not be true. Or we can change perception about something in a good way, like me being overly excited about the vacuum to show my son it was a good thing. It’s scary to me how suggestible we are. How social media influence changes how we think and what we think about. Sometimes in sneaky ways, and sometimes just through brute force repetition.
I started this out saying I liked efficiency. There’s nothing efficient about taking the time to figure out what’s truly going on. It requires more time, investigation and communication. More questions, more conversations. And sometimes those questions have to be processed in an unhurried way. But the search to deal with the underlaying issues are worth it, so they don’t stay hidden and fester. It’d be easy to make a snap judgement and assign my own narrative to a story and maybe even say it enough times that I’d start to believe it and say it enough that others started to believe it too, but would it be true?
What false perceptions have you been living with? What false perceptions are you maybe unintentionally speaking over others? Truth is really really important. The devil is a liar and wants you to believe his lies. Jesus is the way the truth and the life.
