The Goldies' Bond - EQ

"Emotional Intelligence is essential to interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships at school, at home, and at work." - McCown et al

Six beauties gathered for Sept. reading, and five made the 1st 2nd round, light chatting, possible. Our Sept. gathering ended at midnight, a new tryout and another new record.

It’s been over a month since our last reading gathering. I was truly thankful to all my beauties for their sweet understanding to move our reading from the afternoon to the evening. My forgetful and careless mind caused the turmoil at the last min. Gina & Kate, the coordinators of this month’s reading, found a very artistic place Xue Xue Institute 學學文創志業 for us. Our reading took place on the 2nd floor Bite after Bite Restaurantㄧ口一口學食堂. We and some other few girls were the only customers there to enjoy the whole spacious, artistic place.

I was surprised to see the area was extremely quiet and empty. All the parking places along the street were unoccupied. My tiny vulnerable blue car was like the only orphan deserted there. The huge transparent glass wall and doors made me wonder, “Is the place for business or for tour?”

Later my lady friends told me the Institute is not business-oriented. I was happy to see Gina, Kate, Irene, Linda and Michelle were all there already sitting in a nice quiet corner. Actually the whole restaurant was quiet. The 2nd surprise was to see the beautiful scarves Linda brought for every one of us. They were from her talented daughter’s product line. After the warm-up chat, and light food, we proceeded with our reading.

Unanimously, all beauties tonight gave the article “Emotional Intelligence” by Sushma Subramanian, more afterthoughts. Apparently, we all agreed that EQ is a very important asset to everyone. To me EQ and IQ are reciprocal. A person with both always radiates charm and charisma toward people.

We took goldies into analysis to see who fits passive, passive aggressive, assertive or aggressive communicator, the four criteria of communicators mentioned in the article. I think none of us are passive ones taking the active interaction among us into consideration.

A few sentences or statements I like are:
- There’s a different way to be smart than what’s on an intelligence test. It’s not a new concept. It’s a new term. - Roberson.
- It becomes more of a dance between the audience and speaker, and it leads to a much more powerful talk. - Steve Mitten.
- Emotional Intelligence (EIQ) is a crucial element of public speaking.
- The four pillars of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management of behaviors, social awareness and relationship management. – Goleman.
- Intelligence can contribute to success just as much as – if not more than –intellectual aptitude.

We kind of skipped the article “Speaking for the Animals” and moved on to “Nelson Mandela”. Mandela; the son of a tribal chief, a rebel impatient with restrictions as a boy, imprisoned for 27 years, started his speaking tour in 1990 after being released from the jail, is an expert on Adapting a speech to an Audience without changing his message.

After the reading came the shooting moment. Michelle just bought a new fancy, shocking pink advanced camera. We were intrigued and excited to try this camera out and posed by turns for fun. Happiness is contagious, the camera also had its moment.

To go with Irene’s idea of a crazy night, five of us went for a 2nd round after the restaurant wass about to close at 9:00 pm. Linda had to go home to fulfill her wife, daughter-in-law and mother, 3-in-one's role. We tried to look for the pub Michelle recalled, and were disappointed to find it closed for good a month ago. What a nuisance just when five devoted homemakers geared up the spirit to enjoy life more. So we settled for a coffee Shop, Seattle Coffee, serving better coffee than Starbucks for more chat. Except coffee, we got a big plate of pancakes on the house. It excited us. We were so easy to get contented and excited! Time flew fast. After covering a few topics, it was midnight, time for the store to close and time for us to head home.

We set the date and place for our Oct. reading, then called it a day. Tomorrow we shall all get back to our routine lives. The break just makes our reading gathering worth waiting.

Trini
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