Confirming Others?

1.             Yes, there are times when I find it difficult to confirm others but I realize they are a person and are entitled to be recognized. As stated in the textbook on page 204 “the essence of confirmation is feeling known and validated as an individual”.   My mother works in the hospitality industry and has always instilled in us what she calls the 10-4 rule. This means when a person is 10 feet away you smile and recognize them when they are 4 feet away you say hello and verbally acknowledge them. There are times when walking around San Jose that I do not say hello or don’t provide recognition to an individual. This is because the person is acting in an abnormal manner. San Jose has several homeless and unstable people living around the campus. In fact one of my friends was attacked by a “crazy homeless lady” according to her. The lady physically attacked her as she walked by during the middle of the day.

      Chapter 8 does help distinguish between recognition, acknowledgment, and endorsement in a chart at the top of page 207.  I think anyone can recognize or give recognition to any individual by simply smiling and saying hello. This doesn’t mean we have endorsed any of their ideas or beliefs or that we have acknowledged that they matter to us personally or have significance in our lives. It just means we recognize them as a human being and they exist.

        Confirming others as people means we recognize they exist. When we endorse an individual’s ideas or behaviors through acknowledgement we accept that we understand how they feel and believe in a given situation even if we may not agree with them.  A good example of this is having two professional football teams in the bay area. We accept people are either Raider or Forty-Niner fans some people even cheer for both teams. I am a Raider fan so I am not going to agree with my friend who is a forty-niner fan that his team is better but I understand and accept that he believes the forty-niners are better, even though this is not what I believe. We remain friends no matter the outcome of the game.

Katrina