An Attitudinal Approach
Words intrigue me. That should come as no surprise. I don’t do this blogging thing for money, after all. The work I’ve been thinking about lately is:
at·ti·tude (āt’ĭ-tōōd’, -tyōōd’) n.
- A position of the body or manner of carrying oneself: stood in a graceful attitude. See Synonyms at posture.
- A state of mind or a feeling; disposition: had a positive attitude about work.
- An arrogant or hostile state of mind or disposition.
- The orientation of an aircraft’s axes relative to a reference line or plane, such as the horizon.
- The orientation of a spacecraft relative to its direction of motion.
- A position similar to an arabesque in which a ballet dancer stands on one leg with the other raised either in front or in back and bent at the knee.
We have attitude when we walk. A person can tell the mood of another just by watching how he moves. By paying attention to the attitude of the body, as in definition 1, one can easily guess the attitude of the mind, as in definition 2. Of course words broadcasts attitude on several levels. One’s choice of words, ones pronunciation and tonal qualities in combination convey a spectrum of attitudes in subtle and obvious ways.
People use this consciously when manipulating for a goal. That’s the nature of interaction and communication. It’s when the attitude is delivered sub-consciously that interests me. How many of us are cognizant of how we project our attitudes? How we and our attitudes are perceived?
I don’t suggest obsessing about the opinion of others. Yet people who have negative attitudes toward others might want to ponder the affect it has on others. Conversely, I one has a positive attitude towards the people in their life, one doesn’t need to be concerned with such things.
Some may not care; that’s an copping an attitude about one’s attitude. Most would say they don’t care, even convince themselves of not caring, but would be lying. And lying to oneself is perhaps the most tragic attitude one can take.