Friday, December 7, 2012

Another lesson from the discussion group

Yesterday I removed a member from the Meetup group, and banned him from rejoining. It came as a black and white decision after reading his latest send in an email thread. I had expressed being quite annoyed that he missed - forgotten - an online teaching series I had set up for him. It was the 2nd miss out of 6 sessions. The excuse he wanted me to give the online group was "I had a dental emergency." He called back on his car cell phone later and told me he was on his way to the dentist, and the real reason he forgot was that he was loopy on pain medication. That prompted me to say: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING DRIVING A CAR IF YOU ARE SO LOOPY THAT YOU COULDN'T REMEMBER YOUR TEACHING EVENT?" Things seemed to breakdown quickly after that. I sensed a level of condescension and arrogance in subsequent emails that I stood up to. It made me look deeper into my take on things, and learn from it. What I get is that I might have been more aware of signs he was giving in the beginning of our relationship, which started 2 months ago, that he wasn't fit to be teaching awakening, or even being a co-organizer. There were delusional traits that I sensed but wasn't clear enough to act on. So, the lesson is to consider these things more carefully, take time, and don't go by initial impressions regardless of how awakened or well-spoken someone seems to be.

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