Brené
Brown:
Today,
as I often do on Sunday mornings, I listened to Krista Tippett’s interview
program on public radio: On Being. As a person and as a teacher, I was moved by social
researcher/storyteller Brené Brown’s reflections on the difference between fitting
in and belonging. How do we find the
connection we crave as human beings without sacrificing our true selves?
Points
of special interest to faculty/staff from the interview are posted below, along
with links to other resources on Brené Brown, social researcher
and author. I think there's a lot here for parents,
community leaders, and all of us! I commend the entire interview
to you.
May we have the courage to help
each other to authentically connect and to truly belong.
Susan Gelber Cannon
February 2018
February 2018
EXCERPTS:
Krista Tippett, host: Brené Brown says that our belonging to each other can’t be lost, but it can be forgotten. Her research has reminded the world in recent years of the uncomfortable, life-giving link between vulnerability and courage. Now she’s turning her attention to how we walked into the crisis of our life together and how we can move beyond it: with strong backs, soft fronts, and wild hearts.
Krista Tippett, host: Brené Brown says that our belonging to each other can’t be lost, but it can be forgotten. Her research has reminded the world in recent years of the uncomfortable, life-giving link between vulnerability and courage. Now she’s turning her attention to how we walked into the crisis of our life together and how we can move beyond it: with strong backs, soft fronts, and wild hearts.
Brené
Brown: I don’t think — when we’re our best selves with each other, I
don’t think that’s what’s possible between people. I believe that’s what’s true
between people. And I don’t think we have to work to make it true between
people. I think we just have to get the stuff out of the way that’s stopping it
from happening…..
…. I was doing some research, and I
was in a middle school, and I was doing focus groups with middle schoolers. And
I was asking these middle schoolers what the difference was — what they
thought the difference
was between fitting in and belonging. And
they just had these incredibly simple and profound answers: “Fitting in is when you want to be a part
of something. Belonging is when others want you.”
…. I think one of the greatest casualties of trauma is the loss of
the ability to be vulnerable. And so when we define trauma as oppression,
sexism, racism, I have no choice but to leave my house with my armor on and
carry the 20 tons of that through my day, no matter how crippling it is, no
matter how heavy it is, because I am not physically safe in a world — or, this
environment. That’s why, when I work with teachers, I tell them all the time: "You may be creating the only space in a child’s life where he or she can walk
in, hang up their backpack, and hang up their armor. Only for the hour or two
hours this child is with you can they literally take that off…..”
RESOURCES:
Listen to the entire interview and/or read the transcript at the ON BEING website: https://onbeing.org/programs/brene-brown-strong-back-soft-front-wild-heart-feb2018/
Listen to the entire interview and/or read the transcript at the ON BEING website: https://onbeing.org/programs/brene-brown-strong-back-soft-front-wild-heart-feb2018/
Read excerpts from Brené Brown’s books at her Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Brené-Brown/e/B001JP45BA/ref=sr_tc_2_rm?qid=1518374483&sr=1-2-ent
View
her 2010 TED Talk, The Power of
Vulnerability, here: https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability/transcript
