About “#160. Ode to vulnerability”
I did not understand why people are so moved when they attend my lectures. My own openness and vulnerability just feels natural, and I don’t think I present myself unnaturally. But then I met a Swedish woman on Facebook, and I felt her post had a strong effect on me …

… at first I just thought she was a good writer. But two or three years later it dawned on me that it was her honesty, openness and vulnerability that affected me in that way … that’s what vulnerability does.

#160. Ode to vulnerability

TIME 2024.06.05 11:11:14
SPACE 54.766087 12.052608

It’s magical
when people show their vulnerability…
we are grasped and we are touched.
But what makes vulnerability so magical?

Is it because the vulnerability
is so opposite to everything that time offers us …
the pretense … the shining image of success …
and the blinding, falsified high self-esteem?

Do we really have a deep-seated desire
about daring and being able to show ourselves as who we are?
A desire to make up completely
with the necessity of the constant spectacle?

Is that why we are moved
when vulnerability materializes for us.
Because oooohhh, how we miss it …
almost forgot it exists …
we buried it and locked it away years ago.

And then we are reminded of how beautiful it is …
as it rises there from the ashes
in all its beauty and humility …
It just stands there …
without claiming anything else …
than its right to be.

And as it stands there … it tells its story …
quiet … humble … true …
And we feel the power of truth …
in the absence of pretense…
And deep, deep within us … way down there,
where we rarely go …
down there we recognize that it is here,
we must gather that strength and fearlessness,
which is necessary to meet ourselves and understand,
that we are exactly the person
as we shall be …