Chanukah Message: 2009:
Light Leadership By
Cheryl Glover, New Thought Kabbalah
This week my brother sent me a link to my old
High School: Flushing High School in Queens, NY.
As I scrolled down the email
lists, I recalled some names with fondness, some with regret and some
with terror. High School and adolescents were not always kind, but
also not condescending either. I remember, back then you received
immediate feedback. Just the opposite of the last 20 corporate years I
spent. My topic, today, however, is neither on adolescents, nor
kindness nor on how direct youth can be. It is on a reflection of a
generation. We hear a lot about Baby Boomers these days. That may be
because we are finally slowing down enough to reflect. Somehow,
however, I never hear about leadership. My topic today is about
thought leadership. I watched Bob Dylan last night on TV reflect on
his life. He did not see himself as a leader of a philosophy or a
social movement. He just saw himself as a musician. I am afraid that
the whole generation says similar statements.
The first time I had these
thoughts was not today. It was a day, five years ago, when my
16-year-old daughter complained as to why they were not allowing tank
tops in school. Here was my non-stop answer.
Well you can thank your lucky
stars that your Mom and others in my generation walked picket lines to
be the first females allowed to wear pants to school. You take it for
granted but we were the ones who:
·
fought for the rights
to wear pants like the guys
·
fought for the right
to do the jobs we wanted to
·
to get the education
we deserved
·
to allow all races,
religions and colors to walk with dignity and have an equal
opportunity
·
fought against
government bureaucracy
·
who put a man on the
moon
·
who changed major
social reform for handicapped people, for women, for the poor, etc,
etc
·
who tried to stop a
government from waging an unwanted war
·
Who did not allow
universities to govern us their way. We were the customers.
·
who did not allow
past generations to dictate our sexual behavior
·
who did not allow
rules without reason
·
who spoke up against
discrimination
·
who lashed out
against destroying our planet and for environmental issues
·
who would not believe
propaganda and created the Village Voice and Rolling Stone Magazine
·
who would not allow
past generations to dictate our taste in music, in books, in movies
·
who stood for raising
our children the way we thought was right and not the way white
doctors saw as right
·
who saw peace not
just as a slogan, but as a new value
·
who went on a search
for God, and not religion
·
who planted the seeds for holistic and
alternative medicine
·
who saw the dangers of the additives
in our food
·
not to mention some of the greatest
technological advances to date
What were we? Thought leaders. Moreover,
generations before us were not as much thought leaders as we were.
There were few among us that were not thinking about what was rights;
what was fair; why we were doing something; what was truth; what was
prejudice; what was real; what was wrong. We kicked, we scrambled, and
we fought. We created new ideals and new freedoms. We made the phrase:
by the people come alive.
So I finished my speech to my daughter and she
said, But Mom, I thought you didnt start the fire? like Billy Joel
says.
My lesson was to look back on not just one
lifetime but across the bigger picture. In each generation, there is
thought leadership. In each generation, there is progress and there is
error. We started as much fires, if not more, and enhanced fires, as
we put them out. We had light (leadership, righteousness, brilliance,
creativity, courage, spirituality, empowerment, out of the box
thinkers, love, peace and we got involved with our country, our
environment and our planet). And we had darkness (drugs, jail, wars, dis-respect, dropping out, violence, promiscuity, no-future planning,
crime, over-dose, etc.). The Truth is that we had everything that
every generation had. Thought leadership is not always evident. Let
us look at the meaning of Chanukah: when you are at your deepest
times. When there is no light and you think other people are against
you. When there is not enough: food, oil, fuel, money, or love. This
is the time to turn towards the light. The greatest generation of
Thought Leaders is the one that knew without a doubt, without second
thought, without an analysis, that God was with them. This is the
generation of greatness. They knew that the Light would lead them and
the light would hold them. They were Light Leaders.
As we enter into a Holiday of Light, it would be
great to reflect upon the amount of light we have-- and be in
gratitude for what we have. It would be great to reflect upon the
wonderful events and people of the past- and present. However, the
greatest achievement we can know is to Know God and to Know that God
is within us. Happy Light.
LOVE & LIGHT TO ALL OF YOU,
Cheryl
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