Stormy days are upon us. These are volatile frightening times. We find ourselves in a global crisis that also hits very close to home.
Much more than our place on the Scoreboard is at stake. Because how we weather this storm will show if we’re made of the right stuff. If we’re real. Or if we’re shallow. If we have heart. Soul. Character.
Our hopes for ourselves, for the whole world, are threatened by this crisis of confidence. What course of action do we take? Your way? My way? The right way? The catch is, we need the right stuff, the real stuff, to choose the right way and come through with the right follow-up. Because it’s obvious to all of us that overcoming today’s crisis and achieving a quality, fully human, personally rewarding life depends on having the substance to weather the storm.
We all know that it’s not right to measure self-worth by sizing up a person’s investment portfolio and other material assets. And we all know that fighting the good fight is not about one’s place on the Scoreboard. Yet as recently as a year ago, it was common enough to put the depth of self—the character of intellect, spirit and grace under fire, the substance of self—on the back burner.
It is substance that is missing from the nation’s balance sheets. It is the stuff at the heart of substance—like caring, like responsibility, backbone and nerve, like “do no harm”, “avoid being cruel” and “do the right thing” that was missing from how business was conducted.
Surely it was not right to put the development of substance off, but most of us were too much under the spell of the American Dream to take a step away from the fast track. Persuaded by many institutions, peers and our own desire, we relied on the accumulation of wealth and status as the means to reflecting a substantive life and being taken seriously.
And as an unintended consequence of this focus, we lost sight of our faith in the promise and reward of the real heart and soul around which we are to be known and our life is to be played out. Now, though, our circumstances are less than yesterday’s ideal, but the demand on us for substance and leadership is magnified and intensified. So, the need for a profound and striking change in being and direction has become evident.
So, in sum, as recently as a year ago, what we acquired as evidence of our substance and worth were material assets and other symbols of Scoreboard success.
Now, however, for the moment (and who is to say how long it will last and I do not say that it will last), the merit and values of the glorified but too often hollow Scoreboard scenario are being called into question. For the moment, it is obvious that wealth and status do not substitute for substance, for responsibility or for the desire and determination to avoid corruption.
These qualities of self and the confidence and trust they engender must be acquired through specific effort. We also recognize that the realization of huge financial goals is no longer a certainty. Yet, of course, we can’t implode when the stock market does. And we can’t forfeit leadership. The times call for responsibility, for obligation, for us to be leaders in our relationships, homes and communities.
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