A couple years ago I read about a family that shares their failures at the dinner table every night. Inspired by the idea of normalizing failure, I went to try it that night with my own family. I planned to tell them about the mural commission I had worked so hard on, but hadn’t been chosen for. As I went to share, I felt such a surprising amount of internal resistance that I nixed the idea thinking I’d do it a different night. It has yet to happen. It turns out even when you believe in sharing failures, it takes practice, and resolve.
Failure is a crossroads. An opportunity to rise into greatness, flail in self doubt, or sink into malevolence.
Yesterday, as the results from the Georgia runoff started to look more and more conclusive, I read a post from The Conscious Kid with a quote from Stacey Abrams about her take on failure.
“I’ve learned that failure is not permanent. My responsibility is to not let failure dissuade me from my core obligations. Sometimes we pursue a challenge thinking it is about our victory, but we don’t know the true purpose until later. Not becoming governor of one state gave me the opportunity to launch a national network in 20 states [to fight for fair elections]. We are helping reform democracy in places where it was broken and battered. I may not have won the office, but what I was able to earn for the causes I serve has been extraordinary, and beyond anything I could have imagined.”
In the afternoon, I watched the Trump supporters storm the halls of congress in reaction to Trump’s failure to win his bid for re-election. I saw swarms of white men waving confederate flags and even more disturbing photos/videos of police taking selfies with the invaders, moving blockades, and waiving them in.
And this has been building; not for the past several weeks or months or even just over the last 4 years. This has been building since the very beginning of our country.
I read this from Nicole Cardoza “We’re going to keep facing the violence of white supremacy until it’s gone. And we’ve got a lot more work to do. We’re unlikely to see it end in our lifetime. So as you as you move forward remember we have to keep doing the work. Admonish the terrorists- and also address the racist sentiment in your workplace. Continue to unpack your own biases and privileges. It’s clear our future depends on it.”
It’s go time. It’s time to look at our failures, and share our failures, and use them to push us forward.
So here’s to Stacy Abrams and all the amazing organizers who used failure as fuel and have given our entire country an opportunity to move towards what we can become. It’s going to take all of us.
