I am a little bit addicted to TED Talks. I liked them on Facebook, and now they send me all these high-octane, deep dark chocolate morsels of wonderfulness for my brain.
So yesterday I watched this talk by Margaret Heffernan, called Dare to Disagree. She says that good information is not enough, because all too often, we're willfully blind to what we already know.
We're too afraid of conflict to let ourselves know what we know.
But disagreement and conflict, Heffernan says, is the way we know more and get better. When we allow ourselves to keep doing things the same old ways, without questioning, without stirring the pot, we can actually end up causing harm.
(Think about the days when doctors didn't wash their hands. Eeesh.)
She says that we have to let ourselves know what we know. And then we need the will, the talent, and the moral courage to use what we know in the service of good.
Heffernan's field of expertise is organizational culture, but what she has to say applies to where I live, in the world of counseling therapy.
Because an awful lot of what I do is giving clients permission to know what they know, and supporting them to have the moral courage to create conflict if necessary, to live in the truth of what they know.
And, if you've read my Manifesto, you'll know that I won't ask my clients to do what I won't do myself. So I have to know what I know. And I have to have the moral courage to create conflict at times, to live in the truth of what I know. God help me.
photo: Michael Bruner
When we don't allow ourselves to know what we know.
When we live in willful blindness.
When we live in fear of conflict, in dread of disagreement, enslaved to What Everybody Else Will Think.
Then we base our life on lies and the truth slips away, far from us.
God's gift to us is power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
The Truth sets us free.
Not lies.
Not fear.
Not slavery to What Everybody Else Will Think.
So, today.
Let us all know what we know, fearlessly, powerfully, lovingly.
Let us live in freedom and truth.
And let us be a haven of freedom and truth to those around us.
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." Nelson Mandela