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Good Morning Some years ago I participated in an academic seminar in which a doctoral candidate presented a critique of my own work. I wasn’t expecting it and it made me feel vulnerable. My response was courteous. I tell my students, after all, that they should not be afraid to criticize my writing. This moment came back to me when I heard that an influential male ballet director in Germany had smeared the face of a woman journalist, who had written a bad review of one of his shows, with dog faeces, in an act of public humiliation. The ballet director’s action was an appalling way to deal with criticism, even if he saw it as unfair misrepresentation rather than the critique that is linked to freedom of expression and freedom of the press. For there are two broad kinds of criticism, the first resulting in misrepresentation and provocation, and the second intending to be constructive. I have always liked the Buddha’s advice to his followers about the first of these. If they felt the Buddha’s teaching was being misrepresented, his advice was that they should not retaliate maliciously but should rationally point out what was wrong, saying ‘for this or that reason, this is not the fact, that is not so and such a thing is not found among us.’ The important thing for the Buddha was his followers’ reaction to misrepresentation not the culpability of the offending party. This is not easy. Our minds can go round in circles if we feel we’re being unfairly attacked or misrepresented. I know mine has. But an angry response is never the way forward. It is much better to have a dialogue. Constructive criticism lies within a different landscape and here I draw on a story from Christianity, my primary belonging. Jesus travels to Tyre in what is now Lebanon, seeking quietness and anonymity. But a woman finds him and asks for healing for her sick daughter. When Jesus seems to refuse because she was not of his own Jewish family of faith, she boldly challenges him. He then listens, uses his power, and the child is healed. It’s a strange story, which is open to different interpretations. I take from it what I believe is a universal truth. When we are open in a non-defensive way to challenge, to criticism, our decisions will be better. We might see ourselves or our beliefs in a new light. So, unfair misrepresentations are best worked through rationally and sensitively whilst constructive criticism can be a gift for our own flourishing.