I heard an interview on NPR radio with Dr. Deborah Tannen, linguist, about her new book, You Were Always Mom’s Favorite. One thing she said that struck me is that many women describe their sisters as being very different than them. Dr. Tannen explained that this may be because sisters can be given labels in families; the pretty one or the smart one, for instance.
I called my mom, my aunt (her sister) and my sister and found that we were all amazed to realize that we are not alone in describing our sisters as being very different than us.
I am curious … who are the people you would describe as being very different than you? How can you use your differences and your similarities to create greatness in the world? Please post your comments and I’ll do my best to reply to you personally.
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It’s interesting that most individuals want to be seen as just that, an individual. The closer you are to someone; brother, sister, daughter, son, the more different you try and be of that person. But as time marches on, you tend to realize that while there are many differences, there are many, many similarities.
Similarities feel familiar, and familiarity brings people closer, that is a wonderful start to creating greatness. The differences will come up later on, but that will only push the greatness to the next level, in my opinion. Great post!
Thanks for your comments Nicholas. I like your comment about familiarity bringing people closer and that being a great start to creating greatness.
Judy
interesting perspective … and yes i agree. although i dont have a sister, but i do some unintentional labelling when i talk about my two daughters. And they think of themselves the way I talk about them. Interesting how a thought can be put in the heads of kids when they are so young and it stays for almost rest of the life.
I talk about thoughts in my blog too. If you are interested, please visit my blog at http://www.wizardofthought.com.
Hi Nidhi,
Your blog is lovely. The writing is easy and interesting to read … I love your storytelling .. and the image of a wizard is fun. I made a few comments on your website also. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Judy