definitions

defintion: a statement expressing the essential nature of something.

from merriam-webster.com

This evening Rob and I went to The Listening Room Cafe here in Nashville to hear the Barber brothers play. They put on a phenominal show, and I'm super glad I went. The main problem I have with going to Jazz shows though is the fact that I don't understand Jazz music. I don't know where it's going, I don't know if what the guys on stage are doing is good, and I just generally don't get it. But I enjoy it. Listening to Jazz, for me, is a lot like talking to Ruben and Jael (hi-el) in Spanish. I know just enough to make fun of your mom, but past that I'm useless. Despite my lack of knowledge I still enjoy trying to talk some Spanish. And I still enjoy listening to really good Jazz musicians do their thing. 

While they were playing I was thinking about defining things. While at Belmont I had to take a class called Research Methods I. It's exactly what it sounds like: how to do research. And because I was a Psychology major, it was about how to do Psychology research. One of the first things we learned in RM was that in any experiment you need to have operational definitions for what you are researching. What do you mean by "social desirability?" If you are going to be trying to find out more about group dynamics, which ones will you be experimenting on and what is your definition of those dynamics? Without defining your terms, your experiment, you risk confusing the whole deal.


A couple of years after Research Methods I had to take a Servant Leadership class for my Christian Leadership minor (if I had to do it again I'd have a Math minor, fyi). The whole focus of this class was, appropriatly enough, on what servant leadership was. The idea of servant leadership was never defined because our professor theorized that we would be better off by being open-ended with this. But because it was never defined any discussion (argument) always ended with, "well that's not my definition of servant leadership." Some class members were operating off a different defintion of servant leadership than other members. And this undercut our ability to come to conclusions about anything. We left the class with the same amount of knowledge about servant leadership as when we went in, we'd just written a couple of papers and done a presentation to make our professer feel better. And to get the grade.


The most popular form of definition in our day and age may just be the DTR. The "define the relationship" talk. Every relationship needs definition. But most don't need whole conversations about it. The relationship is defined as we relate to each other. When we go out we learn things about each other. I learn if I can cuss around you, you learn that I'm ok with sharing a drink. There don't need to be entire conversations focused on these things, except when the relationship is sped up. When it's a friendship this rarely happens, especially between guys. But when it's a dating relationship, or when you don't want it to be one, the DTR comes out. "What is this? What do we want it to be? Where is it going?" All these questions, and more, are asked and answered. Definition in a relationship leads to either commitment or a parting of ways. It can only stay nebulous for so long, especially when things are moving quickly. 


When it comes right down to it we all crave definition in our lives. One of the biggest questions we face is "Who am I?" We can be defined by our faith, religion, occupation, vocation, relationships, family, etc. Any number of these things can show people who we are. But if we don't know who "I" am, who "I" am becoming, than we can't even think about life moving forward. We need to know ourselves before we can really start relating to other people. We need to define who we are.


Luke
luketlancaster@gmail.com