Role playing in life

I have been contemplating on a few things as of late.

I find myself in an environment where my closest of friends are also my mentors and leaders in various projects and the roles are at times exchanged depending on the project we are working on.

This has created a very interesting situation whereby, whenever a comment or suggestion is made, it can be misunderstood if we identify with our various roles. For example, at the centre level, Zeenee is a SSE Teacher and I am the assistant secretary. So during a centre committee meeting, I tend to ask questions to her about the SSE which may seem harsh and she can actually get frustrated because she looks at me as her husband. But if she understands that at the moment, I am playing the role of an assistant secretary and she an SSE teacher, such miscommunications or an opportunity for frustration gets thrown out the window.

With the various roles we play, I’ve noticed that we tend to get angry at times, tend to react in a negative way and identify too much with the role hence jeopardising friendships, passing on judgement on someone's character and forgetting the true nature of a person. I’ve drawn something very quickly which illustrates my thoughts on this matter.

When we are playing a role, we have to do it to the best of our ability. When we are communicating to someone on a personal/friend level, our roles get thrown out the window and we look at each other as equal.  When communicating in regards to project, work or activities, then we should not take comments directed at us in a negative way and feel that the person is trying to be authoritative over me but instead understand what our roles and positions are and act accordingly.

Example, if in a particular project, I am a follower, I then should follow and not try to lead and the leader should lead and not try to follow. With everyone set in their respective roles, rest assured that the ship can sail.

Of course, where it sails or if it sinks is a different matter altogether.

Problems generally crop up when the follower refuses to accept directions of the leader and try to lead on their own. Eg, a crewman on the ship asking the captain to bugger off and try to sail the ship himself. This is a very common problem and can be avoided if we just learn to first play our own roles properly.

With us practising this and understanding our roles properly, ultimately I guess, the realisation would be that You and I were one and the same all along and it actually didn't matter who led or who followed.

Looking back at this, I would like to humbly apologise if I have then stepped on any of you leaders, toes. At the end, we are all best of friends and we’re just playing our respective roles.