At five in the morning, I woke from a dream and could not go back to sleep.
Whenever my mind is at its weakest, my father seems to return in dreams. He was wearing a wool cap, his back slightly bent, sweeping the ground outside our front door. Just inside the entrance, on the right, there was a doghouse, though the dog was not there. In the dream, I somehow knew it had been kept elsewhere at night because it barked too much. Next to the doghouse sat a large pot, bubbling steadily, gudong gudong, with big bones boiling inside for the dog’s food. Farther in, my mother was still busy with housework.
It also seemed that someone had died. In the dream that part was vivid enough that I was crying hard, but awake now, I can no longer remember who it was.
Later, the dream shifted and I was at a meeting. I was fiddling with the stylus for my notebook and accidentally damaged the tip. So I stepped out of the room, and on the way I saw my graduate advisor. He was wearing a hat too, and looked much younger than I remembered. We stood outside the meeting hall and chatted. We had not seen each other in many years, and the feeling was strangely warm.
I said, “Professor, you’ve lost so much weight.”
He took off his hat, and I put it on my own head. In that moment he seemed almost like a child, skipping away to play. I went back into the meeting room and realized I was completely naked, yet no one around me thought it unusual. It was as if everyone had already grown used to it.
There were many other scenes in the dream, one after another without pause, but only these two fragments remained after waking.
Lately, whenever colleagues come to me to talk about the difficulties of managing the department, the same four things keep appearing beneath the surface: facts, views, positions, and beliefs. They are related, but not at the same level.
Facts are the foundation of understanding. Views are interpretations of facts. Positions are the angle, or filter, through which those facts are read. Beliefs are the deeper mold that shapes the filter itself. In that sense, they form a layered progression: belief influences position, position filters facts, and facts are then used to support views.
More specifically:
① Facts are objective realities: verifiable, falsifiable, and independent of subjective judgment. They describe what something is. They are not altered by personal will, nor do they change depending on whether anyone believes them. ② Views are subjective interpretations of facts: judgments shaped by personal experience, preference, and cognition. They evaluate whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, worthwhile or not. At the center of a view is: this is what I think it is. ③ Positions are the tendencies formed by an individual or group based on identity, interests, and social location. They selectively attend to facts that are favorable to them. At the center of a position is: on whose behalf am I speaking? ④ Beliefs are the deep convictions that guide behavior. They are long-formed core assumptions held by individuals or groups, often without requiring empirical proof. They concern the nature of the world, the meaning of life, and ultimate value judgments. They shape the underlying logic of positions and views, and affect how willing a person is to accept certain facts.
A great deal of conflict in department management comes from blurring the boundaries between these four things. Once the difference is clear, communication becomes more rational.
When it comes to facts, argue only about whether the evidence is sufficient. When it comes to views, allow differences and do not demand uniformity. When it comes to positions, talk about interests before talking about opinions. And when it comes to beliefs, keep a certain reverence—do not assume they can simply be argued away.
Do not treat views as if they were facts. Do not discuss views while pretending positions do not exist. And do not imagine that facts alone can overturn belief.
Strange, really—I only meant to write down a dream, and my thoughts wandered somewhere else entirely.
The advisor in that dream has in fact been gone for six years.
Never mind. Never mind.
To be alive is enough.