About four years ago I had the chance to go on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic. We went there and helped to build a church and walls around it. Throughout the week that we were there we got to spend time with the people who lived near us. Some of them didn't go to school, some didn't have fresh water to drink, but everyone had a smile on their face. While we were working there our biggest goal was to affect the lives of the people. Being aware of the affect we have on people is being sociological mindful. We could clearly see how we were affecting the lives of the people who lived there but one thing i didn't realize until I got home was, how much they affected me.
Whether it was being invited into someones home for some food, or being given a gift before you go home. Little things like this impacted my life more than I realized at the time. This experience humbled me greatly. Experiencing people who had so little give gifts to people who had a lot more made me realize how less privileged people can be happier and better people than people who grew up with everything. Realizing that just by someone giving me a gift impacted the way I viewed society is having a sociological imagination.
Sociological Mindfulness: Realizing how we affected the lives of people there by building them a church and handing out food.
Sociological Imagination: Understanding how their society and way of life impacted us while we were on our trip.
Jeff - what a great experience! Yes I think the trip made you sociologically mindful. For sociological imagination however, the concept is more general and less personal. So, for example, you might use a sociological imagination to understand that people living in the Dominican Republic live differently than we do in the US. Or you might say, people who do community service are affected positively by it. Then the mindfulness piece is realizing how you personally experience that. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteBe sure to explain some sources that we looked at to demonstrate literacy.
Lastly, be careful of Affect/Effect - remember A as in Affect is an Action. They Are Affeced.