Providing a time and a space for people in the marketplace to gather, grow, and be heard in western Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh Experiment (PX) serves the people and corporations of Western Pennsylvania by starting small groups that provide a time and space where people can enjoy a bit of respite during their busy work week, find a listening ear, and develop positive relationships with others in the work force. We currently have groups meeting across the region with bankers, lawyers, techies, business owners, and others involved. We also engage young professionals who want to be mentored and retired people looking to give back.
Listening Over Diagnosing: Understanding Others Beyond the Surface
It was a great holiday season, and we were blessed to have all the family together for much of it. We particularly enjoyed having our grandson, Mario, with us. He is a beautiful and fun 15-month-old, with plenty of energy. Unfortunately, he was fighting an illness
while he was with us. Other than his nose constantly running, you couldn’t tell he was under the weather most of the day. But when he tried to lay down to sleep at night, it was another story. His sleep patterns were thrown off. He couldn’t seem to get comfortable. He just didn’t feel well.
“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”
How often do we do that with other people in our life? Even when people can speak for themselves, we don’t take time to listen, but we still feel free to diagnose their problems. We witness someone at work acting a certain way and assume we know why. We judge them based on our assumptions that we know what they are feeling. We are put off by their behavior without knowing what they are going through in life. We think we are good at “reading” people, when what we should be is good at listening to people.
So, the topic of conversation for much of the week was about what was ailing the baby. At one point his skin got blotchy. Was he allergic to the pets? Probably not, he had been around his cat since birth. Maybe it was the dog. But he was rubbing his mouth. Was he teething? He started to have a cough. Was it RSV? Did his ears hurt? You get the picture. It is so hard figuring out what is causing the pain when Mario was not able to speak for himself and describe what he was feeling. He is not yet able to express what he’s experiencing. So, we all felt free to venture our best guess at what his problem was. The whole family felt free, although none of us are doctors, to give our diagnosis. Well meaning. But generally unhelpful and probably woefully inaccurate.
THE BLOG
When Things Get Better, Will I Go Back To DOING More And Praying Less?
October 6th, 1993 Michael Jordan retired from basketball in the prime of his career. I remember this because it was the first thing I saw on TV when I woke up from a 7-hour back surgery. I thought I was hallucinating. I was a 30 year old former athlete who was just hoping to walk again. I spent the next two weeks mostly on my back. For a very active, Type-A person it was excruciating. I couldn’t DO anything.…Read More
The peale foundation
You may notice in many of our posts that we reference Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and his writings. PX has a rich history with Dr. Peale. Paul Everett ('69-'95), PX longest serving Executive Director, was married to Dr. Peale's daughter Maggie. Maggie is still a dear friend to us, and the Peale Foundation has been a generous and long-time supporter, for which we are very grateful. You can hear many of Dr. Peale's sermons on their recently updated app here and learn more about his books and writings by clicking on their website at here.
