How do you relate to the story of David and Goliath? “David has nothing to lose, and because he has nothing to lose, he has the freedom to thumb his nose at the rules set by others.” In his excellent book David and Goliath: Get it Here. Malcolm Gladwell writes
“It was not the privileged and the fortunate who took in the Jews in France. It was the marginal and the damaged, which should remind us that there are real limits to what evil and misfortune can accomplish. If you take away the gift of reading, you create the gift of listening. If you bomb a city, you leave behind death and destruction. But you create a community of remote misses. If you take away a mother or a father, you cause suffering and despair. But one time in ten, out of that despair rises an indomitable force. You see the giant and the shepherd in the Valley of Elah and your eye is drawn to the man with the sword and shield and the glittering armour. But so much of what is beautiful and valuable in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine.”
So how has the world handled turning a weakness into strength, here’s what they have said:
1. Feel those feeling, if you don’t they will keep coming back stronger and stronger until you have the strength to deal with them.
2. Light and Shadow all rely on Love: California Love.
3. Due to his father’s untimely death, J.C. Penney could not fulfil his dream to become a lawyer. Instead, he had to become a lowly store clerk, the rest is history.
4. You can choose how to relate to your perceived weaknesses:
5. Well done, You!!
6. Fear = Forever Enduring, Always Ready; Forgetting Everything is All Right; Fear Expressed Allows Relief: When You Believe.
7. Maya Angelou, one of my top ten.
8. One foot in front of another, no looking back. That’s how I became a marathoner from a 60 a day cigarette smoker in six months: No Looking Back.
9. Vulnerability = Brene Brown’s fabulous TED talk on the subject, Google It.
10. And from the other side of the world, here’s their say on it: When I am Overcome by Weakness.
11. Remember these questions from your job interviews?
12. The answer isn’t running away, it’s in turning to face them and overcoming the storm: Riders On the Storm.
13. Take a dose of courage daily and you will give strength to those areas of your life that may need some loving.
14. Another way of looking at doing what it takes: The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
15. We all have growth spurts in our life that allow us to do things after them we couldn’t do before.
David and Goliath.
It’s time to revisit our ideas of strength and weakness.
It’s time to see that underdogs and misfits have advantages in their disadvantages and that we can powerfully turn difficulties into opportunities.
Here’s to embracing ALL of who we are as we optimize, actualize and give our gifts to the world!
There are songs by three greats no longer with us in the playlist today. We begin with Tupac, then Hilary Duff doing some country, a Whitney Houston anthem follows, a great new singer Damita, from Syria Ghada Alatrash, then Jim and the Doors, finishing with a powerful performance by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Mint Juleps: Strength Isn’t the Ability to Feel Strong.
Namaste until next time, my dear friends:
I am an Interculturalist 