Trey's Days No. 24

     "You sell your expertise, it's a limited repertoire; you sell your ignorance it's an unlimited repertoire. He was selling his ignorance and his desire to know about a subject and his journey from not knowing to knowing was his work."  This is Richard Saul Wurman talking about Charles Eames, . There's something inspiring about that.  

    
 Henri Nouwen says, "It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility."  Pursuing the desire to know the truth about the world takes courage.  And yes, it takes humility.  The combination of strong self-confidence and humility is the armor that can withstand the nay saying of the world.  When no one else believes that an endeavor is worthwhile, one has to continue to believe in the project of one's quest anyway.  

Trey's Days No. 23

Connection is why we're here, why I'm here.  And connection requires vulnerability.  And vulnerability requires courage.  Brene Brown has something to teach me, maybe all of us, about this whole connection, vulnerability courage thing.

It was news to me that the word "courage" comes from the Latin word for heart.  When "courage" first came into the English language, it meant "to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart."  Do I do that?  No.

Connection is my problem.  All my life I have felt like I was outside looking in, that everyone else knew something I didn't know, that they all knew each other and I was the new kid, the outsider.  Somehow when I was growing up, I got the message from my parents and grandparents that who I really was, maybe because I'm gay, I don't know, was something that I had to hide.  I had to pretend to be what you wanted me to be, and somehow you always knew that wasn't who I really was.  Hence, a disconnect.

Dr. Brown in her "TED Talk" on vulnerability tells us that connection is why we're here, that connection requires vulnerability, and vulnerability is all about being who we really are, no matter what.  I know I need connection, I know I crave it.  There's a clue here on how to get it.  How do we feel truly connected, how do we allow ourselves to be nurtured by those connections?  It starts with having the courage to tell the story of who we are with our whole hearts.  Can I do that?  I think I'm going to try!