Book excerpts - Ch4(E26): What a feeling.

The Emotional Weave of Dramatic Encounters

Drama is a situation (when observed) or experience (When participating) in which tensions and conflicts aggregate, and complexities escalate and overwhelm us.

Because dramas are overwhelming, we are drawn to dramatic situations but retract from dramatic experiences. These conflicting behavioral tendencies inevitably create a gap between theory (what happens to others) and practice (what happens to us). The gap between observed and experienced dramas, or the gap between theory and practice, makes dramas informative and distracting simultaneously.

Furthermore, each one observes and experiences dramas differently, based on their sensitivities, past experiences, and habits. This is why a drama can be intense for someone and indifferent to another. And this is why dramas escalate around dramas. But as they do, they shift attention from one drama to another. For example, try to recall a time when an interruption at an event led to a disagreement with a colleague or friend that lasted even after the interruption was resolved. This is a drama around a drama.

Dramas manifest tensions and conflicts. Sometimes, these tensions and conflicts are clear and agreed upon. But often, the tensions and conflicts are fuzzy and interpreted differently.

For example, dramas (I.e., Escalating Tensions and conflicts) can occur around:

• Expectations and realities

• Imaginations and realizations

• Requirements and capacities

• Desires

• Priorities

• Definitions

• Practices

• Values

As dramas become complicated, additional tiers of tensions and conflicts are aggregated and layered into the drama, making the drama thick and seemingly impenetrable.

As we try to decompose dramas, some dramas are clarified and resolved. Still, other dramas may add up in addition, especially if reactions towards our dramas are inaccurate or misinterpreted - by ourselves or others. This is why the experience of drama can quickly become frustrating.

Drama is a powerful social technology, but one that needs to be used sensibly. Dramas can improve consciousness, mindfulness, and morality, but they can also confuse, delay, and manipulate the above-mentioned virtues.

By definition, any transformative process is dramatic to a certain degree. And because of their inevitable presence in changes, they are a remarkable learning instrument. In addition, dramas are accountability instruments because they reveal the attributions of participating actors and link them to situations.