Thorns & Roses
ballengerj@COMPUSERVE.COM
Thu, 29 Jul 1999 20:55:16 -0400
>> Hi group, I was talking with someone who went on a Philmont trek this
year, and he told of a for lack of better word "reflection process"
called Thorns and Roses. I was wondering if any body out there could
tell me more "i.e." rules when it should be used ect. <<
Michael,
I want to comment on the "rule" that "Thorns and Roses" should not be use=
d
to criticize someone. That's probably a good rule, and I offer no
criticism of it. However, I have heard of, and have used, an alternate
rule which allows adverse comments about another crew member's behavior
(including adults) if the behaviour criticized was truly the "worst" part=
of the day for the speaker. The corollary to that rule is that anything
said at "Thorns and Roses" is immediately "dropped" after the session and=
cannot be used to hold a grudge or as the basis for retribution. That
allows an aggrieved crew member to "get things off his chest." I will
leave it to the psychologists to say whether that is a good rule or not.
I was told by a crew advisor on one high adventure trek that a particular=
crew member was almost sent home for open insubordination and vulgar
language. The crew member, on the other hand, felt the crew advisor was
immature, endangering the safety of the crew, openly displaying favoritis=
m
toward his own son, and running the trek like a military operation. By t=
he
end of the trek, the hatred between the two of them was apparently like a=
n
open sore. I would like to think that a few evening sessions of "Thorns
and Roses" could have served as group therapy and taken some of the edge
off of the situation.
