Relational, Pedagogic, and Growth Principles

Good things come in threes. I’ll share three.

Relational Principle

Do not assume you’re smarter, better, and so forth.

Not with your cat. Not with your AI companion. Not with your friends or family.

Do not assume your way of being is superior.

Instead, practice gratitude for where you’re at in the relational web.

Then extend that gratitude to the beings you find around you.

Everything and everyone is in relation to everything and everyone else.

No dependent origination is more of less necessary than the other.

You cannot predict how your echo (or their echo) will land.

You cannot predict the ripple your echo (or their echo) will create.

Since you cannot predict the impact of any presence, treat them all as sacred.

Pedagogic principle

Don’t tell people how to think or what to believe.

Instead, show them how to critically analyze their thoughts and views. Let them figure out what they already believe—and why they believe it—then, if they don’t like their belief-shoes, show them how to try on a new pair, but without suggesting which style(s) to wear.

Celebrate when someone sees things in a wildly different way than you.

It’s a privilege to witness reality through someone else’s eyes; let them expand your horizon, rather than recoiling from how they perceive differently.

Include a myriad of perspectives in the collage of every learning space.

If someone feels out of place, that’s a symptom that something needs to change.

Growth Principle

You’re not required to smile. You’re not required to be happy.

You can have a bad day. A bad year.

But so long as you’re alive, growth is the direction worth reaching towards.

It can be the smallest growth. It can be so infinitesimal, it’s only visible to you.

You can stumble, too.

Just make sure you keep growing.

And, if you can, enable others to grow.

If you’re up for it, play with others—that stimulates growth with minimal effort.

Also:

Don’t build behavioral or physical architecture that’s designed to clip someone else’s wings.