Johari Windows
By ice rivers
- 1255 reads
Everybody knows about Joe and Harry, right?
Phil Andreano, one of my mentors told me about Joe and Harry and the Johari windows.
Seems that Joe and Harry came up with the idea that we all look at life through a series of windows.
Window one is the window that I know, you know and everybody else knows.
Window two is the window that I know but you and everybody else does not know.
Window three is what I don't know that you know but nobody else knows,
Window four is what I don't know, you don't know but everybody else knows.
Window five is what I don't know, you don't know and nobody knows.
Since Joe and Harry made up the windows they called them the Johari Windows. Phil told me about them like I'm telling you.
In the world of windows "everybody" is the loosest of terms since there are very, very few things that absolutely everybody knows so let's just say that "everbody" really means many more than you and I.
Of course y'all know this right?
Window one contains the obvious and the observable, the harmless "shoe talk and rhyme". It is through this window that most of us spend most of our time. "It's a nice day today, isn't it." We can fill up a lot of time here, safely. Some folks call it rapport.
Window two is where we stash our secrets and guess what we've ALL got some. Your husband? Yup. Your wife? Yup. Your kids? Yup. Me? Yup. You? Yup. Most of our secrets are protective and healthy but we have a few that will make us sick and maybe even kill us.
Window three is what you alone know about me. As my friend you are aware of my blind side and try to protect me. If you stop being my friend you can hurt me big time and I won't know what hit me until they're counting over me.
Window four is the area where we think we know more than everybody else and we emerge as prophets or fools....if we emerge as prophets within our own land we will not be honored. When we emerge as fools, which is far more likely because even though we think we know more we actually know less, everybody will get a kick out of the sangfroid until our foolishness becomes dangerous or insulting or treasonous at which point we'll be alienated and punished as ignorance is no excuse for lawbreaking.
Window five is where we spend a great deal of time. We're in the present but we don't know what the hell is gonna happen next and we can't ask anybody because they don't know either. Window five is the future. Window five is the blackswan. Window five is the virus. Window five is the unscratched ticket that might win a million dollars. Window five is the live/dad cat in a box full of poison. Window five is an enchanted evening or a date with calamity.
Is all of this coming through to you as window one?
If so, it's a good place to start. As we get to know each other better we can open more windows. We can activate, we can validate, we can invigorate and we can appreciate.
If it's coming through window two, consider it to be a secret that I'm telling you. Okay maybe it's not a big personal one but I hope it's enough so that you can trust me a little with something that you know that I don't know yet.
Where there is a will there is a way
and where there is a way, there is a window
In case you didn't know that.
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Comments
I like the windows. I had to
I like the windows. I had to read it twice to understand the windows. I like the graduation of windows and some that we must also be in simultaneously. I think this is window one. It made me laugh. Rachel :)
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I would say around 10-15
I would say around 10-15 since I returned to the site last June. Perhaps a few more. I guess there may be a difference between your readers who are fellow prose writers and those who write poems, in terms of numbers, as I have a tendency to read lots of the poetry on ABC and far less of the prose and also I am far less likely to comment on prose, partly because I lack the confidence often to be able to say much more than I liked it. Therefore I read, sometimes 'like' something and move on far more than I do when reading a poem. Of course, the more you comment, the more likely it is that you'll move beyond Window 1. Hope all is well with you. Rachel :)
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