Memoirs of an Amnesiac

"Respond, don't react!" This had been one of the well-meaning advices I got from a friend when I first started teaching. What with all the many things we had to deal with in my profession - students with learning and behavior problems (because they have found the school a great avenue for expressing their need for attention at home), parents who seem to be so sold out about their children's intelligence that they would fight for it come hell or high water, and those administrators who seem to have hired what seemed to be more workhorses than teachers, who would be less daunted?

Respond, don't react. These two words may seem the same but actually have different shades of meaning. When faced with a crisis, reacting means dealing with the problem, and if possible hurling at the one who caused it resentments brought by it. It means knowing who gets to be blamed and pointing one's fingers at him. It is disdaining the one that has put the problem at one's own light. Responding on the other hand, is looking at a solution and never minding what caused it. Of course, you do get to know and understand what caused it, but you don't just stop there. You deal with the solution more than the problem. Though reaction seems immediate and responding is on the other hand, more thought of and impartial, we need more of responding over reacting to help us grow professionally. Like the many values we learn in life, the skill to respond more than react requires time to percolate as it does not only happen overnight.

In an organization, conflicts are inevitable. Conflicts are indicators that the people inside it have eccentricities and idiosyncracies. Conflicts tell us that minds are at work (though sometimes they are not of the same wavelength). Conflicts speak of great challenges that need more of our attention on the solving part than the blaming part. We do need to respond more in conflicts than react to them if we ever going to survive in an organization.

What areas in life exactly need our response more than our reaction? Many of the decisions we make and the reactions people have on them require most of our responses.

This brings to mind what Secretary Angelo Reyes did with the crisis he was facing. Could he have responded or was it his mere reaction?

No one exactly knows. But as one friend quipped, he was man enough for having done so. People have debated while others stand in the midst and shun all forms of prejudice. What a sharp contrast to former president Erap's viewpoint as he was facing charges for corruption. While being ushered towards his prison cell, he casually waves at a number of reporters and their cameras and saying, "Parang pelikula lang ito at matatapos rin."