The power of noticing
I asked last time what did you hear and see from another person’s perspective?
Particularly someone who might view the world differently or have had a very different experience. Do we really listen and hear people? Do we notice the differences?
I went on a diversity and inclusion training course last year in Leeds. I live in Reading so wasn’t best pleased that I had to go to Leeds because there were not enough places in London. To be honest the early morning start left me a bit grouchy.
As the day unfolded, I realised however I was being given the gift of hearing about how the world looked to a group of people who all saw things very differently. People who experienced a very different world to me.
I was the only white male there.
It was a day full of emotions, raw honesty and deep connection.
I will never forget hearing about what #MeToo really means from one women’s experience of pursuing a career as a young actress. Anger and helplessness rose up.
Or the experiences of a black man working in a system I have experienced as a meritocracy. Injustice and more anger. #BLM is thousands of personal stories like this.
If you asked me, I guess I would have ‘known’ all this before. But it was held somewhere cerebral and factual. Now it connected with real emotions and people’s experiences in a fresh way. I really noticed.
I cannot ‘un-notice’.
As the poet Thylias Moss, wrote, “One must always be aware, to notice even though the cost of noticing is to become responsible”.
What are you noticing?
