From the Deep

She walks onstage, a middle-aged woman in clean, conservative clothes and a less-than-stylish haircut, and the judges and spectators have visible reactions: eye rolls, smirks, exchanged “knowing” glances. You can feel the collective “You’ve got to be kidding me” vibe. The judges smugly interview the contestant, and she answers them with honest, even saucy responses. She seems good-natured and oblivious to the fact that the judges and audience members have settled themselves in for some good ol’ schadenfreude: taking pleasure in the pain of others. They’re anticipating enjoying her failure.

Then the music begins, and when she opens her mouth to sing, what comes out astounds everyone: a strong, clear, beautiful voice that gives pathos to the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. The judges’ faces soften, one’s jaw drops, another rises to her feet mid-song. By the time the woman sings “Now life has killed the dream I dreamed,” everyone in the theater has risen in standing ovation, some of them wiping tears from their eyes, the kind of tears the come from deep within you when you’ve heard something profoundly transcendent.

This scene, which happened recently on Britain’s Got Talent, has rocked the Internet, and Susan Boyle, the woman from some far-off village in England, is becoming a household name. You can see her triumph here. 

I’m not sure why her story is taking the world by storm, but I do know why it has affected me so deeply. I watched a woman–slightly quirky, not the cultural ideal of beauty–take a large risk. She took it in the face of tremendous ill-will and opposition. Yet she has a gift and a dream–a gift and dream she has carried since she was twelve years old–and finally let the whole world see it and be blessed by it.

If you are a gifted person and/or have gifted children, you know the risk it takes to allow that inner light to shine for the whole world to see. The opposition can be fierce and unfair. Marylou Kelly Streznewski, in her book Gifted Grownups: The mixed blessings of extraordinary potential, says it like this: “One is not allowed to enjoy accomplishments, but one is not allowed to be average either. Somebody always seems to be waiting for you to fail so they can gloat” (p. 39). 

So we and our children have two choices: 1) to shine and risk failure and opposition; or 2) to hide, blend in, and deny ourselves. Perhaps we can walk the line somewhere between the two and feel the constant tension of it. But no matter where we are on that line, we are to some degree allowing life to kill the dreams we dream.

But what do we really want? To deny ourselves forever? Or to let our gifts give birth to our dreams? I personally feel inspired by Susan Boyle. I want to take risks to allow the brilliance within me to shine–to experience possible rejection and failure but also the potential to provide a transcendent moment for the people around me. Maybe they’ll laugh, maybe they’ll scoff–and maybe, just maybe, they’ll be moved to experience the more within themselves too.

Sometimes you just follow the energy.

I’ve become addicted to podcasts, and recently to one in particular: a Discovery News Audio Podcast called the Friday News Feedbag. I’d been surfing the iTunes podcast library, looking for anything that might be interesting and fun to listen to on a regular basis. This particular podcast features a host (excuse me, podcast master)–Will Johnson–and two reporters–Jorge Ribas and James Williams–who discuss six new science stories from the week in a fun and informative way. Then, if you wish, you can go to their Friday News Feedblog and vote for your favorite story. It sounded fun, and if you know anything about me, you know I’m all for fun. Plus, since the podcast is science-based, I thought my kids might enjoy it too. I pressed the “Subscribe” button.

I listened to my first episode, their Halloween podcast. I enjoyed it, and learned interesting things such as how candy corn was originally made. The three guys seemed to enjoy each other and their topics–I found myself laughing out loud in public and not caring! So I returned to iTunes and downloaded some previous Feedbag podcasts. Same thing. Great science. Fun repartee. I was hooked.

I couldn’t wait for my first “fresh” podcast, one I could listen to hot off the presses as it were, then cast my vote for my favorite story. In this particular podcast, James bravely attempted pronunciations of various scientific terms, and I empathized. Jorge, too, mangled the pronunciation of one word–”Renssalear,” as in Renssalear Polytechnic Institute–a citation for one of his stories.

They lamented the need for a pronunciation specialist, and though I’m not one of those, I do know how to pronounce “Renssalear.” My husband graduated from RPI, so I’m well aware of this small technological powerhouse, and I know how to say its name. So I humbly sent off an e-mail, telling the dynamic trio I was a brand-new listener, enjoyed their show, and wanted to help, providing a phonetic spelling for Renssalear (ren-suh-LEER, in case you want to know).

I figured I’d never hear from them, which I accepted as reality. So imagine my surprise when an e-mail from Jorge arrived in my inbox! At that very instant, I had been telling a fellow life coach how much I was enjoying this podcast, especially the relationship these three men employ in service of education and entertainment. They seem to lean into their relationship to create their podcast–they express curiosity in each other’s stories, blurt out ideas in a non-attached way, rib each other, and thoroughly enjoy themselves. I wanted to learn how to lean into my relationships in service of leading others.

So as I was having this conversation, I recieved the e-mail from Jorge. I glanced at it quickly, figuring it would be a polite thank you for the information I’d sent earlier, and the first line bore that out. But the second line said this: “So we know you’re a pretty new listener,  but we have a question for you: Would you be interested and available to be on this week’s show with us, via phone?”

Ground control to Lisa. Have we lost communication?

After regaining a semblance of composure, I learned that in their playful way, these science journalists had developed a couple self-help titles throughout their podcasts (Will’s is The Infrastructure of Our Lives, and James’ is Be Like Glass). They wanted to run these ideas by me, a certified life coach, to discuss the merits of these potential books in an educational and mostly fun way. Would I be interested?

Interested in being on a Discovery Channel podcast, one based on science, that’s fun, and is probably heard by people globe-wide? Shyah! (That’s “yes” in adolescent-speak.)

My life-coach friend supportively allowed me to disconnect from our call and respond to Jorge’s e-mail with a resounding YES!

All I did was follow my gut through the entire process, from checking out podcasts to writing my e-mail saying I’d be on the show. I followed the energy.

And that’s how I landed in a feedbag.

EPILOG…

I taped my segment with these gentlemen earlier today, and really enjoyed the experience! I had a wonderful opportunity to talk about life coaching and also about the role of science in my family (which is huge, given my husband is a rocket scientist and my kids attend a STEM school). I’ll blog the link as soon as it’s available. And they’ve dubbed me the Official Life Coach of the Friday News Feedbag! I think I need to have new business cards made…