Joost Steene-Johannessen
Major!
Writing About Resilience
Influences how others can fit into a variety of roles.
Posted May 15, 2021
SHARE
TWEET
EMAIL
Source: Major Role Models/Pixabay
For many years, I struggled to write about models and concepts that I believed were pivotal to our understanding of human beings and the world in general. My failures to attract any readership motivated me to redouble my efforts to better understand the various models I had developed and share new ones with the readers.
Over the years, the lack of positive reinforcement, the more academic literature attention to concrete thinking, and the more indirect and authentic descriptions of human behaviors made it clear that model descriptions needed to be redone. Others had better components and more refinement. My area of expertise was the more obscure but essential types of modeling. I began by splitting my work into these three areas of expertise:
Coordinate Modeling: Did I arrive at a single, infallible model of human cognition or social interaction?
Observational Modeling: Was my model of human activity or communication accurate and applicable to the community or individual?
Collective Modeling: Was my model of human cognition or communication based on anything I had learned from experience?
I rediscovered the importance of modeling while reading Heinrich and Pirie’s book, The Hardcover Edition. Like so many of us, I found the pages of this hardcover to be a powerful reminder of the dedication to research and the love of learning that has made my life possible.
The story of this inspirational book is very much Pettand's story. He says that he was searching for a description of a peaceful and kind person when George was watching the movie, “The Wizard’s Christmas.”
I was very intrigued to receive the film remake and this inspired me to write a book. I had heard that the idea of a powerful, special snowflake that could inhabit any place that had Christmas decorations or sugar was very appealing, so I gave it a good try.
In November of '63, I met George and found myself watching The Wizard, with all the closed captioning and December Glories. I had heard of this before, but George’s description of it conjured up such clear and moving imagery I felt as though something extra--and unique--about the film were the only gifts I could give to those Christmas holidays.
I later brought this new appreciation for the film and its subject to my friend Tom, who has much to recommend. He told me about watching it with his family as we continued to fight the cold and the dark, and about how much he finds the storyline, scenes, and characters warm and fuzzy.
He said that he always felt simultaneously relieved and touched by both the comedy and tragedy, and that the latter sometimes reminded him of his own life. He said, “I used to be someone who took my iPod and put it in my face.”
I continued, “I consider myself a ’blockhead’ these days, I am more attuned to the world around me and I love to laugh. I love to be around people and be facetiously intelligent.”
It came to light that during the filming of this film, the all-star headlining act were relegated to the background. Very gradually, Tom--unlike the rest of the cast and crew--realized how he is connected to each of the major roles. He explained, “When I was 24 years old I went to USC’s Whittemore Laboratory for Young Scientists in the psychology department where I worked with Jesse McCartney and George Gilder. I was working on a project about psychology and nature and wanted to take a photographic project with the guys.”
Gilder emphasized that the quiet and reflective nature of the film, as well as the character discovery itself, showed that Tom’s transformation from a seemingly timid and harmless student to a highly effective leader could be based on “less shaping than personality transformation.”
Transitioning, or repositioning, is an important part of becoming and being more effective. For example, Conway and Rogge suggest the film character of Shylock may have been redesigned to fit the novel character of Shylock, a hypodermic protagonist whom the audience knows no preexisting facts about. However, Shylock himself has not yet changed, and the transformation (as Shylock puts it) has not yet taken place.