Dar and I were working with a couple last weekend, who
came to one of our Weekend Residentials. In the midst of talking about successful
relationships, I made a comment about commitment. Today, as I was
thinking about Into the Centre and about beginning a book
on relationships, I remembered the gist of what I said.
I said,
"In successful relationships, people do
not commit to each other. They commit to
a way of being and relating."
Or,
"We commit to a verb, not a noun."
I did a Thesaurus.com search on "commit." Here's one section:
Main Entry: choose
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: select
Synonyms: accept, adopt, appoint, call for, cast, co-opt, commit
oneself, crave, cull, decide on, designate, desire, determine,
discriminate between, draw lots, elect, embrace, espouse, excerpt,
extract, fancy, favor, finger, fix on, glean, judge, love, make choice,
make decision, name, opt for, predestine, prefer, see fit, separate, set
aside, settle upon, sift out, single out, slot, sort, tab, tag, take,
take up, tap, want, weigh, will, winnow, wish, wish for
Antonyms: decline, forgo, refuse, reject, spurn
Source: Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v
1.1.1) Copyright © 2005 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights
reserved.
To commit, then, is to opt-in, or select, something.
Now, you may be saying, "Yeah. And I chose him or her as my
life-partner. What's wrong with that?" And I would reply, "Nothing,
other than that it won't work."
This is a normal misperception. We've talked in the past about inside / outside confusions. In all of my
writings, I stress the importance of acknowledging that the only thing I
can know is myself, and even that task is never perfectly accomplished.
I can commit, then, only to what I am in direct control of.
Misunderstanding this is what gets us into trouble.
Whenever I commit to an external anything, I make a fundamental
mistake. The mistake is this: I am actually committing to my present view of the thing I am committing to., which means I am in deep
trouble when that external thing changes. And change it will.
I could give you a million examples of this, and am
almost tempted to start doing that. But let's see what happens if we
keep it simple—perhaps the place we started will suffice.
The biggest cause of relationship discord is the
disenchantment that comes when the object of our affections "changes."
Let's create Dick and Jane, and work from Dick's side of
things.
Dick meets Jane, they strike up a conversation, and
decide they like each other. This leads to deciding to date. Now, as
soon as they meet, both begin to create data files. For Dick, there is a
"Jane" file, filled with bits of data. Initially, it's filled with
"enchanting" bits—hormonally driven data about her appearance, smell,
what she wears, how she sounds. We could call this data, "All the things
about Jane that turn me on."
As time goes by, biographical data is inserted, as are
"likes and dislikes." Sexual preferences show up. Safe topics, unsafe
topics, both appear as "do and don't" lists. This goes on, not only when
Dick and Jane are together, but perhaps more importantly, when
Jane is absent. It is during the absences, especially, that Dick
attaches meaning to the bits of data in the file he has of Jane. It's,
"Hmm. In the middle of the meal, right after I talked about baseball,
Jane got a pained look on her face. She must hate baseball." Dick
inserts "Do not talk about baseball" in the "don't" file.
Hopefully, you see the problem emerging. THAT piece of data has absolutely nothing to do with Jane. All Dick knows
for sure is that an expression came over Jane's face during a
conversation at a restaurant. All the rest is Dick, making guesses, without checking with Jane.
And here's the weird part. All of the rest of the
data collected so far is also completely about Dick. (In other words, Dick doesn't know dick
about Jane...)
This is where I loose most people, so stick with me.
Believe me that I am not splitting hairs here. Let's set things up for
the inevitable disaster, and then return to commitment.
Dick is turned on by Jane. He likes the length of her
skirts, the choice of her clothes and the way she smells. Into Dick's
file goes, "Jane is one sexy woman. Everything about her turns me on."
During sex, Jane goes, "Mmmm." And Dick thinks, "Boy, Jane really likes
it when I do that. She thinks I'm a great lover."
So, Dick has created an expectation and a story about who Jane is, based upon his observations and
interpretations. He decides, as he totes it all up, that Jane is the
woman for him. After a while, he decides he's ready for a commitment.
Dick is about to commit himself to a relationship to
the woman he has created in his head.
We jump ahead a few months, after the engagement, or
moving-in-together, or marriage (the thing Dick committed
to, with Jane) and one day he rolls over in bed. Jane is staring at him.
She's dressed in a ratty tee shirt, has morning breath, and says, "Dick,
we have to talk. I've been thinking about it, and our sex life sucks.
You're the worst lover I've ever had."
If Dick is normal, he either slinks out of bed or fights
back. The fighting back will be, "You've changed. You're not the woman I
married (or whatever.) All the times in the past, you liked it. I heard
you go "Mmmm." You lied to me about who you really are!" Jane defends
and explains. He thinks "betrayed!", and she thinks, "deceived!"
And on and on. If they go to therapy, they'll each tell
the therapist how betrayed they are. "He/she is not the person I
thought he/she was."
Damn straight.
Jane is who Jane is, and who Jane is, is who Jane is today. Added to all the yesterdays. And tomorrow, she's
everything she was and who she is tomorrow. And thus it is with
everything external I might choose to commit to. A religion. A
political party or type. A job or career. Everything changes.
Including you. Minute by minute. (You are changing, whether you know
it or not, as you read this.)
When we get caught into thinking we commit to a person, we set ourselves up for failure, as such a commitment is
to that person at a particular point in time. Absolutely no one living
is a static entity, and no one you know is as you perceive them. The
picture in your head, as you describe someone, is data about how you
interpret that person. It is not a description of the other person.
Ever.
We use the example that all siblings know. You're
sitting with your brother or sister, talking about a past event, and you
can't agree on any of the details. If you get the joke you laugh. If you
are dumb, you argue about who is right. And all that is happening is
that both of you were there, observing the same event, from two distinct
perspectives. Each of you took in what was important to you, and each of
you interpreted it in your head. Thus, your description is about you, not about the event. It's been demonstrated that, when
couples are shown a video tape of the event just disagreed about, both
look at the tape and go, "See! I was right!" Even with the tape, they
still see what they are predisposed to see.
So, if you can't commit to an external without
eventually disappointing yourself that the external shifted, what can
you commit to?
You commit to a
way of relating.
Next issue, we'll explore this, but here's the short
form:
-
I can only commit to an action - to something I will
do.
-
I commit to being in relationship with you. Here is
what I commit to:
-
I will be open, honest and vulnerable in my daily
communication with you.
-
I will tell you, today, who I am and what I am
thinking.
-
I will tell you, today, everything I have done, and
what it meant to me.
-
I will listen to you with curiosity and interest,
today.
-
I will accept that you are who you are today, and
will integrate
who you are today with my picture of you from "yesterday."
-
I will make myself fully available and present to
and with you, today, and engage in clear and concise communication
with you for not less than 30 minutes, today.
-
I will own all of my thoughts, feelings, emotions
and interpretations, working to take full responsibility for each
and every one of them. If I slip and go into blaming, I will stop
myself, apologise, and return to self-responsibility.
-
I will actively encourage you to listen to me and to
actively hold me to the performance of what I have committed to.
-
I will commit to all of these things, without any
expectation of anything from you, as all I can ever commit to is to
what I can and will do.
Interested?
More next issue!!!
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