It is not because you do not know the truth that I write to you, but because you know it already.
– 1 John 2:21
People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.
– Samuel Johnson
I am not writing this piece for you, I am writing it for me.
I am not trying – though it often sounds that way, I’m sure – to convince you of anything, to make you change anything, to swing your vote to my side.
It is through writing that I remember what I care about, why I care about it and what I need to do every day to live out those beliefs.
I care about self-knowledge and personal accountability for acting on that self-knowledge as consistently as possible.
I care about building relationships that are based on love more than fear, respect more than intimidation, and open-hearted vulnerability.
I care about learning, the relentless exploration of the frontiers to which each of us is called.
Every time I write I am inviting myself back to those three themes, checking on my integrity, exploring my commitment. Every day I bake a new cake of those beliefs, combining the ingredients once more to find out if I have them in the right proportion, to see again if I am living out what I so easily espouse.
If what I put down moves or shifts your point of view in any way, that’s the frosting, but I am not concerned with that.
I am concerned with the cake. If it’s not right, nothing else matters.
DAVID BERRY is the author of “A More Daring Life: Finding Voice at the Crossroads of Change” and the founder of RULE13 Learning. He speaks and writes about the complexity of leading in a changing world. Connect with him on Twitter at @berrydavid.
