HONESTY BEGINS WITH YOU
CHARLENE is a questioner,” YOU’s Nicola Whitfield and Sandy Cook said to each other as they read through the personality types outlined in a new book. And I was true to form when they told me – I immediately started asking questions. What does that mean? How does it work? What does it say? How did they get there?
A Questioner is one of the four personality tendencies discussed in our extract from the book. The others are Obligers, Upholders and Rebels. It was fascinating trying to work out what category we thought suited us best.
Turn to page 86 to see which of the four you are, and how you can maximise your strengths and work on your weaknesses. It might help to know your partners or kids’ tendencies to better understand how to engage with them.
This certainly stood out for me: “For young Questioners, school can present a real challenge, because many school rules seem arbitrary or inefficient, and teachers and administrators often feel little obligation to justify them.”
I wish my teachers had read this story back then!
RECENTLY I visited the new art museum in Cape Town, Zeitz MOCAA. Apart from a wondrous visual experience, I also had an epiphany. In the basement there were 23 bundles of posters. We were told clearly we could take one each. I saw people – young, middle-aged, all races – helping themselves to many. The ushers on the way out retrieved the unauthorised items.
It struck me then that the corruption in this country has to be stopped from the bottom up, starting with this type of petty dishonesty, because it’s not going to be stopped from the top down.
I imagined a three-pronged campaign: personal – a campaign for each of us to commit to conscious choices in our actions; structural monitoring – as the ushers did, to minimise temptation; and acknowledgement – coverage in publications where small, honest choices are acknowledged, until such time as it comes naturally to most of us. Perhaps a celebrity who’s passionate about this issue would be willing to “front” the campaign. VEE ESS, SUN VALLEY