Can You Hear Me Now

We each have been handed a microphone.  We can broadcast just about anything we want our world to hear, and so we “let it all hang out” as we used to say in the sixties and seventies.  We spew, we proclaim, we broadcast, we announce, we show, we give our opinions, we blab and blabber, we repeat, we opinionize (I just made that word up), and sometimes we condemn.

This “microphone” of which I speak takes a few forms of which I’m sure you yourself use.

World-wide web

Internet

Email

Online video / YouTube

Meetup

Twitter

Facebook

eBay

Wikipedia

LinkedIn

Snapchat

Skype

And the list goes on …

Our world is forever changed because of these ‘microphones’. 

When using these ‘microphones’ we can …

dispute

 we can argue

  we can proclaim

   we can pontificate

    we can pronounce

     we can call out

      we can incite

       we can intensify

        we can lie and cheat

         we can miss-shape the truth

          we can put people in their proverbial places

We can also …

Say a kind word

Say hello

Say I love you

Say I appreciate you

And a ton of other esteem-building thoughts.

I think we’re onto something now. 

There are two comments that I never get far from.  Here they are.

On Oprah Winfrey’s last show, she said this:

“I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common – They all want validation.  They want to know this:

     Do you hear me?

     Do you see me?

     Does what I say mean anything to you?”

That wakes me up at night. 

Those thoughts are what keep me writing and cause me to get up early most days to see what I might possibly say to help combat this “lack of validation” issue. 

Do you see what we might be able to do with all these microphones starring us in the face?  We could turn them on for good.  We could say kind and encouraging words to our friends, our web-world of connections. 

I have opinions.  You have opinions.  We all have opinions.  And that is just what they are – opinions.  Don’t threaten me with your opinion just because our opinions clash.  Don’t threaten to cut me off on social media, don’t call me ‘stupid’ or ‘uninformed’, and don’t threaten to ‘leave America’ if a certain candidate doesn’t get elected. 

Rather … allow for the different view, the different slant on things.  And by all means … find the words that build esteem, words that enhance the situation, and words that encourage a fellow citizen on this globe.

There is one more thought that is significant for today.  Mary Kay Ash said it this way.

Pretend that every person you 

meet has a sign around his or 

her neck that says, 

"Make Me Feel Important."

That’s what Oprah heard from her 30,000 guests.  That’s what I see and witness through these blogposts that I write.  The posts that get the most responses are ones of esteem building, hope-giving words.

You’ve got a microphone – several microphones at your disposal. 

Make the world better.

Make a difference.

Tell us something helpful – something inspiring – and something to build us up.

Can you hear me now?

The idea for this post

is from Seth Godin’s book

What to Do when it’s Your Turn

Pg 132

Morning Notes Blog Site

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time