At the end of her epic ted talk, @BreneBrown says that one of the most important things that we need to believe is that, "we are enough ... Because when we work from a place that says, 'I am enough, then we're kindler and gentler to the people around us and to ourselves."
What's fascinating about this idea is that it keeps coming up as a factor in breakdowns in human interactions. I find this to be true in pop culture (stories in film) and in real life. Breakdown happens when one or more individuals in a situation believe they are not enough.
When a person believes they are not enough, she often overcompensates for her insecurity by projecting her own flaws onto others or over-emphasizing her own flaws as more grandiose or important than they actually are. This often takes the form of bullying, self-harm, or both.
This is true on a basic psychological level but imagine what happens when politically toxic ideas get thrown in the mix. What happens when young people are told that their lives don't matter because of skin color or gender or any other irrelevant characteristic?
What happens when a young black boy in Ferguson -- because of a breakdown in the local economy, schools, and community cooperation between the community and the police -- feels like no one actually cares about his life and that his life is an insignificant speck?
He will, like Maya Angelou once said, not only feel free to take another man's life, he will feel free to allow his own life to be taken.
And what happens when a Linda Sarsour tells a young white man who asks her a question that he has no right to ask her a question because of the color of his skin? What do you think that does to the psyche of a young college student, to any college student?
Randy Furniss, the neo-nazi who tried to go to a rally w/ Richard Spencer but who was later embraced by a young black man wasnt born a skinhead. But at an earlier time in life, he tried to commit suicide. These are patterns of behavior in people who don't believe theyre enough.
We need to start putting a premium on compassion and empathy in the way we interact with each other, both on a policy level and an interpersonal level. We've got to start telling people -- black, white, jew, muslim, rich, poor, men and women -- that they are enough.
It's like what @aliciakeys says in her song, 'We are Here' : Our souls are brought together so that we could love each other, brother -- we are here for all of us."
This is why Im so critical of a judicial process that doesn't place emphasis on restoring inner city communities that need healing & I'm critical of dangerous rhetoric sweeping across college campuses that disparages people because they're white men. Both are incredibly toxic.
