{"id":168,"date":"2017-10-07T18:57:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-08T01:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/?p=168"},"modified":"2017-10-07T23:09:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T06:09:25","slug":"light-from-many-lamps-william-s-ogdon-post-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/2017\/10\/07\/light-from-many-lamps-william-s-ogdon-post-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Light From Many Lamps – William S. Ogdon (Post #1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

William S. Ogdon: Happiness cannot be bought; indeed, money has very little to do with it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

William Ogdon’s article in the New York Times<\/em> in 1945 really spoke to me because of the transitional stage of life I am in right now. I am currently seven months pregnant with my first baby and lately, I have been thinking about my vision for my life as well as the life I want for my baby girl. My husband and I have been married for three years, and both being in the early years of our careers, we have spent the past few years trying to create a financially stable environment for ourselves and for our future children. As the arrival of our baby nears, I find myself analyzing the ethics, morals, and priorities that I want to instill in my baby girl. While being fiscally responsible is important, I want to teach her that “happiness comes from within, and rests most securely on simple goodness and clear conscience” (Ogden as cited in Watson, 1988, p. 17). Money can afford us many conveniences in life, but true happiness comes from being content with what one already has, being kind to others, and by continual self-improvement.<\/p>\n

Ogden utilizes persuasion in his article in the New York Times<\/em>. He uses “gentle nonjudgemental argument” and “clear and persistent communication that convinces others to change” (Northouse, 2016, p. 228), which is characteristic of servant leadership. In an earlier blog post in week 1, I mentioned that I believed persuasion was most effective when the leader had either referent power or expert power (Leong, 2017). However, when I read about Ogden’s article and the impact it had on his readers, I realize that he was able to persuade them even though he had no relationship with his readers, nor was he considered an expert on the subject. This challenges me to believe that when \u00a0a leader has a message that followers innately understand is true and good, they can be persuaded even without the leader possessing any position or personal power.<\/p>\n

There are two applicable lessons here for me – one as an educator, and one as a leader. As an educator, I want to be able to pass on the message that “happiness comes from within” (Ogden as cited in Watson, 1988, p. 17) to all my students. Many times I see my students strive to be the very best, which is admirable, but they are so disappointed and disheartened when they face any obstacles or experience failures. I want to teach them that academic or financial success can only satisfy a small part of their desires and that true happiness comes from personal growth and being kind. As I try to instill this principle into my own children, I want to be able to pass this on to every child that enters my classroom. As a leader, I have learned to be bolder in my approach to persuasion. If I have a message that I truly believe is good and right, I should share my thoughts with others and not question whether I have any position or personal power to do so. In my daily life, I think I could apply this approach when talking to others about the saving grace of Jesus. Oftentimes I find I am very timid to broach the subject because I do not feel like I am in the position or have the right relationship with others to do so. However, from the response Ogden received for his article, I believe that if I choose a caring and nonjudgmental approach and tone, it may be more well-received that I expect.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Northouse, P. G. (2016).\u00a0Leadership: Theory and Practice<\/em>. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.<\/p>\n

Leong, R. (2017, September 27). Unit 1 Activity 5: Blog Post 3. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/2017\/09\/27\/unit-1-activity-5-blog-post-3\/<\/p>\n

Watson, L. E. (1988).\u00a0Light from Many Lamps.\u00a0<\/em>New York: Simon and Schuster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William S. Ogdon: Happiness cannot be bought; indeed, money has very little to do with it. William Ogdon’s article in the New York Times in 1945 really spoke to me because of the transitional stage of life I am in right now. I am currently seven months pregnant with my first baby and lately, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-light-from-many-lamps","category-unit-2","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}