Sunday, November 17, 2013
Sunday Reflection: From the couch
This morning, I have an op-ed in the Waco Tribune Herald about clemency. Here is how it begins:
This summer I taught in Rome. People assume it must have been a great time, but I didn’t like Rome that much. The problem was more my fault than Rome’s; I was a silent introvert in a city of gregarious people. Romans will dash into a “snack bar” to get an espresso and drink it standing up at the counter, talking to whoever else is there in a mad flurry of words. That’s not me — I’m the guy on the soft brown chair at Starbucks, keeping to himself and engrossed in reading.
And, yeah, I do get around to clemency later in the article... but there is a very real truth about me in that opening paragraph. A few of them, really. First, that it was a hard and often lonely summer this year, one that deeply challenged my spirit. Second, I think it took several weeks in a culture of extroverts to let me see my true nature as an introvert.
That may come as a surprise to those who know I do a lot of public speaking, but it is often true that people who do public performance of one kind or another are often introverts. I think there is a reason for that-- because what we say and do publicly is hard, we plan for it and worry over it and make it exactly right when we can. We construct it carefully, because we fear it.
At the core of that is something important: That sometimes what you do best is what happens in the course of conquering a fear.
