Reflection for the Week–January 27

To struggle with objectivity in the interpretation of texts, art, and relationships is a welcome and challenging task. Where to pull back and where to let go is rarely black and white. Since objectivity is never total, this signifies that we’ll have to wrestle with greater and lesser degrees of it in various contexts. Think about it like this, although there are several ways this plays out in life: Inappropriate objectivity would be taking so great a degree of distance from the other that there’s no risk of being touched. Appropriate objectivity lessens the degree of distance and allows for transparency and exposure to gradually unfold, albeit with caution. Learning how to negotiate our way through the labyrinth of otherness is a fitting enterprise for who we are and what we do. Too much or too little objectivity will have the tendency to deaden meaning and truth, which are both central to healthy interactions with the other.