Relational Dialectics

Observation #5
February 23, 2015
Relational Dialectics

As you have probably learned by now, Meagan and I are pretty close friends outside of the Communication Theory class.  I really appreciate Meagan and I's friendship because she is a spontaneous person, which is something that I would not consider myself.  Her spontaneity really shines when she gets bored.  This is when she suggests some pretty bizarre ideas (usually involving food).  For example, usually when we get lunch after this class, she suggests the Atrium since we do not have to go outside; however, on rare occasions she likes to spice up the lunch and suggest we go to Noyer.  While I thoroughly appreciate her trying to switch it up, we still usually go to the Atrium since it is cold outside.

This relates to Relational Dialectics with an internal dialectic tension.  Specifically, this situation responses to the tension between stability and change.  In this case, Meagan and I keep our stability of always getting lunch together on Wednesday and Friday after our Communication Theory; however, we still want to change our location from time to time.  This is an important balance in Meagan and I's relationship.  She enjoys keeping things more stable for me, yet I enjoy letting her change things about the lunch from time to time.  This interruption in stability allows our friendship to keep going and growing.  I prefer to know what to expect each Wednesday and Friday after class; however, I still want to have some sort of surprise.

Relational Dialectics suggests that this balance between change and stability is what keep Meagan and I's friendship afloat.  If we were to remove Meagan's spontaneity for change, then we would get bored with the same routine.  If we were to remove my preference for stability, then we would lose any consistency in our friendship and grow aggravated when we ran out of new things to do.