I was honored to be able to attend the B Corps Champions Retreat this week here in Vermont and, while I will write a lot more on it in the coming days, I wanted to share this video to start telling you about it.
Jay, one of the three co-founders of B Lab, started out our retreat with this video. It's a wonderful 4-minute story and an apt metaphor for Certified B Corps who may be small in number but are actively shaping our communities and the ecosystems around us.
Threw a line out to pull you to me.If you don't get it, then you don't get it. You made your mind up before you knew me. If you don't get it, then you don't get it. Take my hand for a minute. We're in it - imagine all the pain that might be forgiven.
What if I had your heart? What if you wore my scars? How would we break down? What if you were me and what if I were you?
What if you told my lies? What if I cried with your eyes? Could anyone keep us down? What if you were me? What if I were you?
Had a dream of a new tomorrow. If you don't get it, then you don't get it. I took a step hoping you might follow. If you don't get it, then you don't get it. Take a chance for a minute. Jump in it. Imagine if you asked yourself for a minute:
What if I had your heart? What if you wore my scars? How would we break down? What if you were me and what if I were you?
What if you told my lies? What if I cried with your eyes? Could anyone keep us down? What if you were me? And what if I were you?
To the ones who make it better, find to get out, gotta touch the other side. What if all that it took to save our lives together was to wise up.
What if I had your heart? What if you wore my scars? How would we break down (break down)? And what if I were you?
What if I told your lies? What if you cried with my eyes? Could anyone keep us down? What if you were me? What if I were you?
What if your hand was my hand? Could you hold on or let go? What if your life was my life? Can you love what we don't know?
What if your hand was my hand? Could we hold on or let go? What if your life was my life? And what if I were you?
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You can't lead people unless you love people. You can't save people unless you serve people.
I really enjoyed this interview today with Jon Stewart asking Tavis Smiley about his new book The Death of a King: The Real Story of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year.
In it he says this,
Whatever happened to the notion of love in our public discourse? And that is not a laughable concept. King put love in the center of the public square. Gandhi put love in the public square. Bobby Kennedy put love in the public square... Let me ask you this. Can you name 3 people in leadership in this country who you believe love you enough to die for you?
Pretty deep topic for the Daily Show! And it was recorded on September 11th no less, 13 years after the day that changed that date forever.
Tavis's comments remind me of one of my favorite quotes from Gandhi, "There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for."
I love what Tavis is pointing at and the reason he wrote his book. He says in the interview that he doesn't want us to remember King as a black man or a martyr. He wants us to remember him as the kind of leader that all of us can be, a leader who speaks the truth and works to make the world better for everyone. He led with love and we can lead with love.
I couldn't agree with Tavis more. Serving is the only way to save others (and ourselves for that matter).
And the only leaders I admire, the ones with pictures up on my wall, are the ones that truly love others.
That's the kind of leader I hope to be.
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes.'
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
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