A kind inquiring soul recently asked over email for thoughts toward a potential vision for herself as a speaker. Her initial curiosity was not too concerned about targeted learning objectives in the short-term. She was still in brainstorming mode on next steps. But she was reflecting on and concerned about how Covid19 has affected her communities.
Her mindfulness around the virus was very much apart of her speaker-related questions. It was an interesting, hopeful exchange. I am grateful to her, and offer segments of our e-discussion here.
“….From the vantage point of wanting to honor your uniqueness – I will withhold a full vision for growth until we officially meet eye-to-eye! Your needs to grow, and serve audiences will feed so much of how progress is defined for sure.
But I want to speak of vision from a perspective outside the bounds of a particular speaker’s need — and more within our shared capacity to relate as neighbors, citizens, professionals, community, successes, failures, survivors finding our way through Covid19.
Whether in bold or subtle ways, we are surrounded by uncertainty. We are engulfed in a world that has always been shifting but the virus has brought an intensified language of unfairness and fear to our society’s inevitable shifts.
So whether we ever meet or not, my vision for you is that you find solace from language; that you garner restraint to not say the words that cause more fear or severance, but give the ones that propel wisdom, utility; reparation, mercy; and lastly that you talk to others (and receive them) in the certainty that even just one well-chosen word can activate lasting encouragement. I hope you can live your talk this way.”
Image Winter Rhapsody by Alice Popkorn, Creative Commons