As I walk the streets of Chicago, I wonder.
I wonder how many hearts have been snared by a narrative of accomplishment, which wraps up to our ear whispering, “only accomplishment makes one worthy of attention.”
I wonder how many are taken to the brink of madness because of the paradox: the more I do, the more attention I will get and yet the more I do the less time I have for the connection I crave. When the calculus isn’t adding up . . . I must be more of a failure than I thought.
I wonder who has deceived us into believing that people only want the work of our labor and not someone to labor alongside. I do wonder these things.
But I also I wonder who has the courage to admit that they are worthy of intimacy simply because they are human.
I wonder who has the courage to admit that what they really long for is not to be accomplished but not to be alone.
These are the leaders I want to follow. These are the outliers who have never fit in, who have given up on glancing from side to side to see what is expected and how they can live up to it and so have cut through the whispers to scream: I AM ENOUGH, COME ALONG.
