203: Stop Playing the Hero

What can we learn from that experience? And the first thing that comes to my mind is to acknowledge whatever is the reality, even if it's a really hard one and it's a really awful thing.

And I think about not just my chemistry teacher that day, but I also think about my math teacher that afternoon.

I remember we were in the class and she said that the principal, the superintendent asked them to just go about their day like it was a normal day.

But she looked at us and And she refused.

She refused to do that.

And I respect her for that.

She knew that it wasn't appropriate.

She acknowledged what everyone was going through.

One of my classmates, still a good friend of mine, told her that his father worked very nearby, the World Trade Center.

And he didn't know if his father was okay.

Turned out his father was.

But that's what we were all going through that day.

And I think whenever there's something really difficult in our lives or in the lives of someone we care about or we're leading or we're supporting, acknowledging the difficulty is human and it's the only way to work through it.

And the second thing I take away from that experience was the courage of those first responders and how when there's such an emergency, like what, happened on 9-11, that human instinct to help one another, that's a beautiful thing.

Obviously, it was a terrible circumstance, and there were people that were heroes and dropped everything, sacrificed everything to save others, and that's powerful.

And then the third thing, I hope this isn't too controversial, but I just feel it to be true, is the value of seeking to understand each other.

The people who did those terrible, heinous acts, they thought they were doing a good thing.

It's a terrible thing to say that.

It's terrible that they thought that.

They thought it was the right thing to do.

I'm not saying we should then allow for actions like that and say that it's appropriate.

Of course it isn't.

Those people need to be removed from society if they're harmful.

And I think it's important to seek to understand them, to help them realize the impact of their actions.

I think when we can understand one another, we can work through these kinds of conflicts and acts that would be so obviously heinous because there are stories that are being told.