Emotions

Liar!!! Liar??? Who’s Telling the Truth?

December 8, 2014 By Carolyn Parr 3 Comments

“Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” Chico’s famous line in the Marx Brothers film, Duck Soup (1933) may no longer be a joke.

According to The Washington Lawyer, since 1989 DNA evidence has exonerated 506 innocent people convicted of serious felonies based on eyewitness testimony. The witnesses believed their memories were accurate. They were wrong.

It’s tragic when an innocent person is sent to prison. It’s also tragic when a family is destroyed because brothers and sisters (or parents) remember an upsetting event differently and blame each other. Each is certain his or her memory is not only true, but the only version possible. [Read more…]

What Do You Really Want?

July 10, 2014 By Carolyn Parr 2 Comments

A character in the movie, How Do You Know? declares that what he’s learned in 20 years boils down to this: “Life is about finding out what you want and how to ask for it.”

That about sums up what most people learn in mediation. They are trying to discover what they [really] want and how to ask for it [so they can get it and move on].

For instance, an out-of-town daughter, Janna, is furious at her Uncle Peter, who lives near her mom. When she visits every two or three months she sees Mom deteriorating, and she holds her uncle accountable. Janna wants to replace Peter as holder of her mother’s medical power of attorney. [Read more…]