A few years ago a quiet shy woman was participating in a range of courses here. One day she told us a story I’ve never forgotten.
She had recently joined an organisation and then after a couple of months she received an invitation to the Annual General Meeting and later went along rather nervously, wondering what it would be like. She found about 30 people sitting together and a chair-person facing them. She said he was a professor, very much in charge, and obviously had chaired such meetings for many years.
After the regular business the chairman said “Right, now we need to agree to the re-printing of our key manual”. Then he said “All in favour?” and as he did so she watched the hands going up.
She then she told us she had no idea what came over her but in a shaky and quiet voice she said, “I couldn’t understand it, it was too complicated for me”. Suddenly there was dead silence in the room and over 30 pairs of eyes looked at her. She said she was frozen to the spot but then somebody else said “I’ve never understood it either” – then another “I thought it was just me” and another “I thought I wasn’t intelligent enough.” Then everybody started speaking.
When the vote was put – only 3 people were in favour of re-printing it as it was. This lady said so many people thanked her for speaking up and she came away feeling overwhelmed by the power of this experience.
I am offering this little story today because so many of us believe we are not intelligent enough, not educated enough, people will think we’re stupid or our view is of no worth. So we lock into ourselves the gift of our feeling and inner knowing. Like this lady, what she considered to be insignificant, turned out to be the match that started a huge fire and the beginning of a real change in that organisation.
So how many times have you suppressed and dismissed what you have felt and then probably witnessed a progression of events which were damaging, divisive, complicated and disempowering?
Behind all this there is the fear of what happens if we speak up. Sometimes it can be as simple as saying “I don’t understand” or “This is over my head” or “Does everybody else understand this?” The power in simple honesty, the power within the ordinary and the power within expressing what you feel can be awesome.
The lady in the story could have come away feeling lesser than the others and even considered sneaking out – instead she came away feeling 10 feet tall and her example ripples on.
So often we misunderstand the meaning of power. This inner power is not power over others. We all have it and need to work with it and use it for a truly free, personally empowering, creative and mutually supportive society.
And always remember these powerful insights so often come spontaneously – just as it was with this shy and gentle lady. —Lionel Fifield
