Dites Moi, Pourquoi

It is a question repeated endlessly by our 4 year old children when we’re simply too exasperated to answer and is largely absent from our political discourse whether it be in the arena of the environment, economy, health care or education.

True confessions, I’m evolving into somewhat of a Ted Talks addict, and during one I watched recently the speaker, Simon Sinek, discussed how great leaders inspire action. He presents a convincing case that great leaders start with ‘why’, then move onto ‘what’ and ‘how.’ In other words they operate from the inside out. Great leaders don’t just hold a position of power and authority over us, they inspire us. They, in turn, move us from the inside out.

This talk reminded me of a diary entry my sister, Mary, sent me which was written by a young Jewish woman named Esther ‘Etty’ Hillesum who died at Auschwitz in 1943. Determined to continue her intellectual and spiritual growth as well as ‘to share her people’s fate’, she joined the Jewish council at Westerbork transit camp. Here is one of her reflections from the year prior to her death:

‘Leading lights from cultural and political circles in the big cities – wrenched from their context – walk along the thin barbed-wire fence. Their silhouettes move, life-size and exposed, across the great stretch of sky. You cannot imagine it…their armor of position, esteem, and property has collapsed, and now they stand in the last shreds of their humanity. They exist in empty space, bounded by earth and sky, which they must fill with whatever they can find within them – there is nothing else. When bereft of the material and social props that occupy so much of our attention, what is left to any of us? Only what is inside.’

I have thought about why our country is still grappling with problems that seem too large for my meager mind to fathom. At the risk of oversimplifying, I would argue that our leaders are working from the outside in. They are reacting in a knee jerk fashion and applying band aids. Look at No Child Left Behind and how FAR BEHIND we still are in reading and by a significantly larger margin, math. Look at our welfare system which fosters dependency on…itself. Look at homelessness – our temporary institutionalizing merely perpetuates the cycle. Look at what happened after Newtown, CT – gun sales skyrocketed (and we require a permit to catch a fish!) Look at the environment and how many oil spills continue to spoil our precious waters, many of which we never hear about. Look at our culture of celebrity worship – don’t get me started. Look at our health care system which has become one more of disease management than wellness promotion. Look at our economy – we bail out large businesses instead of providing incentives for small ones.

Our politicians are paralyzed by their platforms – they typically offer us only ‘what’ and ‘how.’ If their ‘why’ brings them too far left or right, forget it. We may live in a free country, yet no one in a position of political leadership is completely free to be authentic and operate from an inner platform based on convictions and beliefs. And our country is suffering. We are not peeling back the layers, asking why these systems are failing and addressing the root causes.

If I had to choose one system to revolutionize and mine the problems at the core, it would be education. If our children do not learn to think, solve problems and take risks; if their natural creativity and imagination are stifled; if they do not acquire the motivation to work from the inside out; if they do not become aware that neither they (nor the United States) is at the center of the universe…well, you see where I am going with this.

In yet another Ted Talk on American education, Sir Ken Robinson offers that the following are necessary for our children to thrive: diversity and curiosity – as opposed to what exists in our modern educational system: conformity and compliance. Education, he says, is when learning happens. I love his words: ‘curiosity is the engine of achievement.’ As parents and teachers, we need to encourage curiosity not only about the world outside of our children, but also the world within.

Our country is in great peril if our children are not given the opportunity to discover what lies inside of them – inside each of us – which Auschwitz victim, Etty Hillesum, describes as ‘great splendor.’

And this great splendor, I believe, is nothing short of a reflection of the Divine.

– Caroline Watkins