October 4th is National Golf Lover’s Day. All I can really say about golf is that I bought a set of left handed clubs about 25 years ago, and then got a nice bag. My wife eventually took the large umbrella to put in her van. Every several years, my wife asked me to put the clubs in a garage sale…because I have never used them. I can’t get rid of them. Someday I will go out and actually play a game.
October 4th (First Friday in October) is National Body Language Day. There are several books on body language that I have had for quite a while. I bought them new in college. There is: “Body Language” by Julius Fast, 1973; and “How to Read a Person Like a Book” by Gerard I Nierenberg and Henry H. Calero, also published in 1973. While both books are about Kinesics-body language, the first book is more about relationships, and the second more about business. I have enjoyed reading each of these two books.
I have not found a book on body language to read children, though I have read their attitudes of disgust in most of what I did or tried to get my kids to do. I tried the book “Ten Mistakes Parents Make with Teenagers (and How to Avoid Them)” by Jay Kesler, 1988. Not a bad book to read.
The author states “he is one of the parents who has made many blunders. He will tell you of some. And, as a better-than-average observer of the human condition, he is also going to tell you about some he has seen other parents make.” He makes some good points on parenting, and observing how teenagers are reacting how you project yourself.
Body Language is not only about reading people, and half people (teenagers), but pets as well. I have a very interesting book “The Koehler Method of Guard Dog Training” by William Koehler, 1962.
This is a great book on raising dogs. First with the basic dog training, then in training a dog to protect people or places. You have to understand that dogs react not only to vocal commands, but to your visual motions, as well. Dogs also communiate back to you very visually. You can more easily train dogs when you understand their body language, and know how you are projecting your body language.
In all of the above books, I found that there is two elements to body language, the delivery of a message, and the reception of the message. Without multiple cues, or good understanding, it is easy to misinterpret. I have often been a bad reader.
Thanks for perusing through today. Let me end with a quote.
“I speak two languages, Body and English.” –Mae West
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