Objectivity

Dear Readers,

My name is fatmarc vanderbacon. I remember when I was doing my undergrad, taking a class on the bible. The professor introduced  the class stating that we were going to study the bible as a piece of literature not a religious work. He continued that we would discuss the origin of the stories, the historical context, and possible authors. The professor finished his opening saying that he respects  religious beliefs, and acknowledged that some students cannot study this text in this fashion. If that was the case, this might not be the class for them. I also clearly remember a couple of born again Christians in this class who stated after the professor's introduction that they were born again Christians, and the bible was god's word. I can remember them saying "amen" or "Praise Jesus" after passages that the professor read that night. After getting the stink eye from the professor, and frankly many of us in class, they continued the practice in a whisper...

It was a little surreal. I'll admit I kinda thought at first it was a joke, or they were putting us on. In hind-site, they were not, and after the second meeting of class I think the kids realized, this wasn't going to be a good class for them. They couldn't separate their beliefs from the class and focus on the literature.

Fast forward 20+ years. Outside of my exciting cyclocross career, I actually pay the bills as a Human Resources Professional. I like to think of myself as being a strategic partner, and frankly in our organization I believe the value of HR is appreciated. In school, I'm currently taking a Strategic HR class as part of my program. While I am learning a lot, and enjoying the class, a lot of the time there's material and discussions around issues and topics that I have some real world experience with... It's been a struggle to not share all my experiences, or thoughts on issues... I recognize I  may be one of three people in the class that work in HR...  I'll admit there have been sometimes when I squirmed a little in my chair or found myself looking at my role and my team's role in our organization. There are some real world learnings for me.  I've also heard a few things that frankly I felt like were just bullshit. Needless to say, this experience brought me back to my Bible class in undergrad. Now, my HR beliefs and practices surely are not on par with these guys faith in God, but I do have some very deeply held beliefs about culture, development, and human resources' role in a company. Having those beliefs examined and poked  has been an interesting experience. One thing is for sure, it's changed how I look back to those kids in the bible class. As an adult, I find it challenging to have my deeply held beliefs that I have had 40+ years to develop questioned, I can only imagine how tough that could have been as a 19 year old still trying to figure out things out. Odd. Anyway, just something
I was thinking about.

thanks for reading.

respect
vanderbacon