#50 - Crucial Conversations

For my first book outside my safety zone I read Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joesph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. I was introduced to this book by a 90 minute conference on this subject, which I felt only grazed the surface. Using this book, I learned more about how I tend to argue and confront people when the topic turns to rough material. This comes up in my professional life - both with patients and staff - and at home. The book teaches you to try to move a conversation out of the realm of silence (withdrawing, giving in and regretting it, etc) and violence (attacking the other person, snide remarks, etc.) and instead toward a pool of shared meaning where you can truly dialogue in a way that moves the conversation forward. I find myself using these techniques already, and I hope to incorporate more in the future.

#65 - Sauder Village

We've lived here for 10 years and for the first time, we visited nearby Sauder Village today. Sauder Village was founded by Erie Sauder, of Sauder Furniture fame. It transports you back over 100 years ago to life in the swamps of Northwestern Ohio. There are a few original buildings and several replicas on the site of old family farmhouses, barns, shopkeepers, doctors, and schools among others. They have animals on the farm and the kids got to crank a device that pulled dried corn off the cob for animal feed, then grabbed the nearly spent cobs and tossed them into a nearby pig sty. In one of the historic farmhouse, a volunteer showed us how they prepared food in their log cabins. This one had a firepit with a hole in the roof for the smoke and she was using the set up to prepare the fixings for a dandelion green salad with bacon dressing. It was good to know that in desperate times we can turn to dandelion greens for nutrition, though I think we were all happy to wait for desperate times. They had a little kids area with a replica farmhouse (and butter churn) and a fake cow to milk. They enjoyed the play break, but quickly wanted to get back to seeing more of the village. We found a replica of a schoolhouse, where a volunteer told us about how school was different back then, but they learned some of the same things that our oldest is learning in school now. The "water fountain" was a bucket and ladle by the door and light came in through paper covered windows and little oil lamps. One of our favorite parts was a relatively new addition to the property that dealt with the original inhabitants of this area. Our oldest got to help put together a wigwam that the Native Americans would have used for traveling. He also told us about the more durable longhouses that they framed in wood and covered in bark that they had there. We finished the day with sweet treats from an ice cream parlor and vowed to return to see the parts we missed today.