{"id":5411,"date":"2021-03-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/?p=5411"},"modified":"2021-03-14T14:17:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T21:17:15","slug":"dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2021\/03\/dignity\/","title":{"rendered":"Dignity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rosa Parks, in her book Reflections by Rosa Parks<\/em> described\nhow she learned from her mother to have dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s all she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That word \u2013Dignity\u2014along with courage and independence\u2014is exactly\nwhat I think of when I think of Rosa Parks.  I long to have the dignity she had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She understood something I don\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In pursuit of greater dignity I searched for a book on the topic.
\n
\nI found Dignity<\/em> by Donna Hicks. She drew up a framework for dignity and made\nit understandable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to have dignity and give dignity. I have not known how, but she outlined 10 steps. I’m lifting this from an article the author wrote for the Ikeda center posted here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\n

Acceptance\nof Identity<\/strong>
\nApproach people as neither inferior nor superior to you; give others the\nfreedom to express their authentic selves without fear of being negatively\njudged; interact without prejudice or bias, accepting how race, religion,\ngender, class, sexual orientation, age, disability, etc. are at the core of\ntheir identities. Assume they have integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognition<\/strong>
\nValidate others for their talents, hard work, thoughtfulness, and help; be\ngenerous with praise; give credit to others for their contributions, ideas and\nexperience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgment<\/strong>
\nGive people your full attention by listening, hearing, validating and\nresponding to their concerns and what they have been through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inclusion<\/strong>
\nMake others feel that they belong at all levels of relationship (family,\ncommunity, organization, nation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety<\/strong>
\nPut people at ease at two levels: physically, where they feel free of bodily\nharm; and psychologically, where they feel free of concern about being shamed\nor humiliated, that they feel free to speak without fear of retribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairness<\/strong>
\nTreat people justly, with equality, and in an evenhanded way, according to\nagreed upon laws and rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independence<\/strong>
\nEmpower people to act on their own behalf so that they feel in control of their\nlives and experience a sense of hope and possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding<\/strong>
\nBelieve that what others think matters; give them the chance to explain their\nperspectives, express their points of view; actively listen in order to\nunderstand them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefit\nof the Doubt<\/strong>
\nTreat people as trustworthy; start with the premise that others have good\nmotives and are acting with integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accountability<\/strong>
\nTake responsibility for your actions; if you have violated the dignity of\nanother, apologize; make a commitment to change hurtful behaviors<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This is my goal. I want to have the dignity Dr. Hicks describees. I want to give it. That’s the goal. I’m grateful to her for defining this precious character trait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent of any specifics, I can point to these elements and know where my dignity stands or might be under attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I can resist the attack with dignity. I can avoid the double loss by being strong in expressing my own dignity. I have the tools now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rosa Parks, in her book Reflections by Rosa Parks described how she learned from her mother to have dignity. But that\u2019s all she said. That word \u2013Dignity\u2014along with courage and independence\u2014is exactly what I think of when I think of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5412,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions\/5412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}