Alex Cross: You do what you are Jezzie.
Jezzie Flannigan: You mean you are what you do.
Alex Cross: No, I mean, you do what you are. You’re born with a gift. If not that, then you get good at something along the way. And what you’re good at, you don’t take for granted. You don’t betray it.
Jezzie Flannigan: What if you do, betray your gift?
Alex Cross: Then you betray yourself. That’s a sad thing.
Remember young sir, it’s all illusion; and dreams though potent, are no solution to the problems that we face. The rainbows that we chase are no more real than the idea that your foot will heal. My words no doubt seem strange to you, but please remember that they’re true.
— The Pied Piper of Hamelin – Faerie Tale Theatre.
If you don’t know anything about Brené Brown, start here. She will help you expand your perception in so many ways, I can’t even describe. Plus, she will do it (as she always does) with a rare combination of research and humor.
Personally, this talk led me to read and look for more about her research, however if you just watch this talk alone, it should fundamentally change many of your ideas and conceptions about vulnerability, courage, shame and connection.
In fact, one of my favorite quotes in this talk is this:
by the time you’re a social worker for 10 years, what you realize is that connection is why we’re here. It’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. This is what it’s all about. It doesn’t matter whether you talk to people who work in social justice and mental health and abuse and neglect, what we know is that connection, the ability to feel connected, is — neurobiologically that’s how we’re wired — it’s why we’re here.
With more time I’ll write more about her research and published books. For now, enjoy this insightful TED Talk.
Someone once told me to say the following words, and they have been stuck with me ever since.
“I will be there, in that blank space with you. That is our place and you are mine”.
“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infintesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.”
Where are you going tonight, Frank?
Some place exotic?
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