I didn’t say what I could have said.
Instead, when it was my turn to introduce myself (we were welcoming a new member…), and to share something happening in my life I said, “I took my lab puppy Henrietta to the dog park yesterday. She loves other dogs! She was so wild and happy—I could have left and I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have noticed.”
The other board members laughed.
Before my turn to speak, I listened to:
I’m retiring as president of the bank in June…..
I bought out my business partner and am really busy trying to run two construction firms…
I run the ER at the hospital, am raising three kids and two dogs. My husband is a sheriff….
I wrote a book and will be a published author this summer….kicking off a big campaign for the hospital….
I volunteer at X, Y, Z and P, D, Q…..
I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren….
My life felt small in comparison.
Rush hour for me is—well, I don’t often have one—unless you count the galloping of my mind?
Feelings—>Thoughts—>Action—> ???????????????????????????????????
I wanted to feel BIG and tell them the sort of thoughts I share with you:
Fragments—What my fellow board members shared about their lives was processed through my own experience filters.
I don’t see them as they are, but as I am.
That I struggle to see the value of one bureaucracy raising funds to distribute to another.
That all of the motioning, seconding, following by-laws, and meetings feel like busy work.
That we do not live in a moral society, but rather a legalistic one.
I could have told them about the Abilene Paradox?
If I had a do over, I’d definitely do that!
Hindsight!
Or, how I see our medical system as dumb. If people became healthy, what would happen to one of our economy’s biggest sectors?
That I question funding technology because, the faster we move, the more we lose sight of life’s joys.
But….instead, small me talked about Henri and the dog park.
Without the trust of I/Thou, I felt that a board meeting was not the place to share such thoughts.
Thanks,
for letting me share them,
here.
Conversation invited.
Just hit reply to this email.