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Role Swapping
I loved the Role Swapping exercise. It made me want to be part of the meeting too, instead of just running the camera. I tried to get Mike to play it with me...not because we need it...just for fun, like a game. But he said no. So I tried to play it by myself. That didn't really work out very well. But when I was pretending to be Mike, it got me thinking. What if we really could swap places with the people we don't understand?
You know swap with someone like your mean boss, or someone from another country, or that girl at the coffee shop who always cuts in line but pretends she doesn't, or that hooker on 10th Avenue, or Bernie Madoff (ew). I bet it wouldn't be like in the movies. Like when Kirk Cameron swaps with his dad and he's old. Or when Tom Hanks got to be 13. Or when Robin Williams got to be 13. Or Jamie Lee Curtis....wow the movies do that one a lot. I think sometimes you would think "Wow! I had no idea how hard it is to stand on 10th Ave all day...those shoes really hurt!". And sometimes you would be like "That girl who cuts in line isn't busier than me or more important than me....she's just a bitch!". And Bernie I'm sure you have a really nice house....but seriously?!?
Walking in someone else's shoes could be interesting and give us a perspective on their lives. It's supposed to give us more compassion and patience for other people, right? But what if it just made us all that much madder?