What Defines Us

What Defines Us

By Angela Greenman

What is it that defines us? After traveling the world as a communications expert, I believe it comes down to this question.

The question is complex, because none of us are just one thing. We live a multitude of roles. We may exist in several different environments during the same period of time. In each environment, our responsibilities may vary, resulting in an ever-changing power dynamic. At home, for example, within a matter of hours we can switch from being a supportive spouse to a parent who disciplines, a short-order cook, a daily organizer, an accountant, or a tutor—and back again. Then at work, we must fulfill other demands, creating a new set of relationship engagements.

These power dynamics—the reactive forces in human relationships that make us respond a certain way in a particular situation—challenge successful communication, and they fascinate me.  

I’ve always believed that the core of good communication is message development—how you say something, how you make a point that’s clear and understandable to your audience. Doing this requires figuring out what is important to your audience (their key issues), what is impacting them (the power dynamics in their life), and what situation brought you together.

My thirty-year career in public affairs has involved working with diverse groups of stakeholders in a variety of situations and environments. I started in Chicago in the area of human relations, then moved to national nuclear power communication issues at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. There I covered twenty-six reactors in six states before progressing to the international level at the International Atomic Energy Agency. As an expert and trainer for more than a decade, I worked in sixteen countries, including Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, and Ukraine. 

Learning the complexities of each country’s history and culture expanded my belief that history and culture are not just part of who we are; they are also a reactive force. 

Discovering how deeply rooted a country’s culture and history are within a person affected me more profoundly than anything else in my travels. When I was the lead trainer for an IAEA workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan, my suitcase didn’t arrive with me. It missed my London connection and wouldn’t arrive for three days. The host country, in a kind and generous gesture, gave me two Pakistani women’s outfits of beautiful blouses and pants and even sandals. In evaluating the training, many of the participants—instead of discussing the workshop’s course content—commented that they could not believe an American would wear their traditional outfits. While I was happy to have helped in some way to lessen a negative view of an American, I was stunned that, even after an intense week of training, feedback on my clothing surpassed that of the video-taped and simulated role-playing communication exercises. 

The world is large and often the divide is too. While the IAEA-sponsored workshop focused on training communication professionals, it also brought together people who might not otherwise meet, thus providing an opportunity to share cultures. While at the Islamabad workshop, I enjoyed wearing the traditional clothing of my father’s birthplace in Lahore, Pakistan, and felt closer to him while doing so. The social events at the workshop were a chance for good discussions with participants and the event overall was a positive cultural learning experience for everyone.

When I was in China, I watched the graceful unity of men practicing tai chi outdoors in the mornings. They turned and moved in total unison. In the afternoons, I’d hear schoolchildren reciting and singing in amazing harmony. Not one pitch off, not one beat missed. The perfect unity was not achieved in one year, or in ten years. It came from centuries. 

Maybe because I’m an American, this cultural depth—seemingly ingrained into the very souls of those who are part of it—affected me profoundly. As Americans we are not only part of a country that’s younger compared to much of the world, but we also represent a country of immigrants. There is no one dominant American culture. Additionally, we’re transient folk for the most part. We move between states without settling down and calling one place home forever. Whatever the reason that China’s (as well as many other countries) cultural depth affected me, I’m glad I had the chance to experience it personally, to encounter what it means to be so connected to one’s culture that it is a part of your very movement. 

These experiences have helped me to better comprehend why successful communication is difficult. We live on a planet populated by multi-dimensional people who come from a variety of cultures and who live under diverse political systems. It’s complicated. We truly don’t know what someone else’s emotional trigger will be, or which phrase will turn on the light switch to understanding. It isn’t just one factor that causes us to react or to make a decision, or even to listen. I learned we have so many elements at play in our lives—human relations, our roles, our culture, and our history. 

There is no doubt that my travels have affected my approach to writing my debut techno thriller, The Child Riddler. I set out just to write a bold adventure about the good guys getting the bad guys, but I ended up writing a multifaceted character and an intricate story. As reviewers have said: “A complex heroine for the complexities of a new era”; “The plotting is complex and has an ambiguous morality that I like.” 

I think it’s great that there isn’t one thing that defines us. It’s the complexity that makes us all exciting.

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Angela Greenman is an internationally recognized communications professional. She has been an expert and lecturer with the International Atomic Energy Agency for over a decade, a spokesperson for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and a press officer for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, the City’s civil rights department. After traveling to twenty-one countries for work and pleasure, Angela decided to seriously pursue her love of writing. She is a member of the International Thriller Writer’s Debut Authors program. Her debut international thriller, The Child Riddler, is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other retailers.

Links to connect with Angela:

Website: https://www.angelagreenman.com/

https://www.facebook.com/people/Angela-Greenman-Author/100071879436485/

https://twitter.com/AngelaGreenman

https://www.instagram.com/angelsprism/

 

THE CHILD RIDDLER

Despite the angry scars she carries from her childhood training, Zoe Lorel has reached a good place in her life. She has her dream job as an elite operative in an international spy agency and found her true love. Her world is mostly perfect―until she is sent to abduct a nine-year-old girl. The girl is the only one who knows the riddle that holds the code to unleash the most lethal weapon on earth―the first ever “invisibility” nanoweapon, a cloaking spider bot.

Zoe’s agency is not the only one after the child. China developed the cloaking bot and will stop at nothing to keep its code secret. While China rapidly hones in on Zoe, her threats grow. Enemies in Austria and Bulgaria reveal the invisibility weapon’s existence to underground arms dealers―now every government and terrorist organization in the world want the nanobot.

From Malta to the Italian Alps to England, Zoe races to save not only the child she has grown to care about, but also herself. Her drug addiction is threatening her engagement to the one person who brings her happiness, yet she needs the agency prescribed pills. They transform her into the icy killer she must be to survive. Can she still be ruthless without the chemicals that suppress her emotions?

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing