TALK to me…

by Doug Brown

TALK to me, please.  Turn off the teleprompter, close the notebook, put the index cards in your pocket, and TALK to me. 

After more than a year of listening to the presidential candidates, I still have dozens of lingering questions, and one simple request…stop READING to me, please.  Just TALK to me.

Mahatma Gandhi once spoke before the House of Commons in England, and held their undivided attention for more than two hours.  In fact, he opened his talk amidst a nearly hostile audience, and ended it two hours later to a rousing standing ovation.  What made this even more amazing was that he did so with NO notes.  In fact, following the speech, several reporters approached Gandhi’s secretary, Mahadev Desai, incredulous that Gandhi could mesmerize his audience for so long without notes.  Dasai replied this way:  

“What Gandhi thinks, what he feels, what he says, and what he does are all the same.  He does not need notes…you and I, we think one thing, feel another, say a third, and do a fourth, so we need notes and files to keep track.”  

WOW!  Hey Washington!!  You hear that?!?

So how is it that someone can speak so effortlessly and convincingly from their heart, with no notes whatsoever?  What’s the secret to speaking from the heart, which enables some to do so with great ease, when others cannot? 

The secret, I believe, starts with actually KNOWING what’s in your heart.  And that begins with discovering WHO you really are, WHAT you really believe, and WHY.

And that’s what I find missing from this campaign.  Every piece of it is so manufactured.  Every action, so measured.  Every comment a spin.  And every time the candidates speak, they’re READING from their teleprompter, not TALKING from their heart.  Why?!?  If they really BELIEVED what they’re saying, wouldn’t they be able to simply TALK to us?  What are they trying to hide?  Are they afraid we’ll find out they “think one thing, feel another, say a third, and do a fourth”… 

Gandhi, himself, put it this way:

“My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another…my life is my message.”

Five weeks from today, the big top will be lowered on this circus and, for better or for worse, we will have a new President.   Half of us will be happy about it, while the other half…not so much.  But either way, the distraction will be over, and some even more important questions will remain: 

What’s in YOUR heart?

WHO are YOU…really, WHAT do YOU really believe, and WHY?

When you speak to your partners and your team, your better half and your family, do you SPIN something carefully crafted, or do you TALK openly from your heart?

Do you think one thing, feel another, say a third, and do a fourth?  Or is your life an “indivisible whole”?

TALK to me…