Peter
Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy
Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted
philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and
touring his “Concert & Conversation” series in support of his bookLife Is What You Make It.
This is a song about relationships:
“Without You” by Peter Buffett
It’s about the fact that when we find truth in ourselves, we
find it reflected in everything around us. We can only have authenticity if we
ourselves are authentic. We will only see love and vulnerability when we allow
the same in ourselves.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all
indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to
be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. – Martin
Luther King Jr.
Let’s look no further than Rush Limbaugh. Rush is clearly
hurting. His need to name call is such a clear reflection of someone that is
wounded from the very same thing. This doesn’t make it okay. But it makes it
possible to have compassion – even as you may feel intensely that he should
never be heard from again. I don’t respect his opinion, but I have respect for
how it was formed. Rush has shown us who
he is.
I believe that we form our first line of defense from the
center of our deepest wounds. Then, I find that compassion can come naturally.
Imagine a light saber burning with intensity being powered by personal trauma.
This power can also be used positively; Eve Ensler’s phrase, “pain to power,” and her body of work, show that this power can be an incredible force for
good. But most of us are too afraid of being hurt–of showing vulnerability.
Massive walls get built to protect us from reliving the
pain that was created so long ago. And
we play this out on many levels. People that are in positions of power end up
hurting entire social, environmental, political and economic systems–public
destruction that starts with personal pain.
When I was a kid, I remember my cousin telling me about how
terrible the Soviet Union was. They were the enemy. My response was, “Don’t we
need them so that we’re the good guys?” It seemed so obvious that the
relationship was critical to keeping things in balance.
So, where to begin healing these wounds? With a new respect
and understanding of what it means to be in relationships, with ourselves
first, then with each other, and extending out to everything in the world
around us.
“And when I touch you
I feel happy…. inside” – Lennon and McCartney
Beyond just one of the five senses, touch runs deeper. Being
in touch with our inner selves means being connected to what makes us feel, and feel things in others. When you’re “touched” the feeling starts in the
heart. And it allows–maybe for just a moment–vulnerability. Which is the
key and necessary ingredient to being in open, honest relationship. Once
it’s clear that being vulnerable is a courageous act. It allows for interaction
in empathic ways that neutralize artificial boundaries created out of fear. “Us
and them” melts away.
“I wouldn’t be without you
nothing to see without you”
“Relationships are all there
is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to
everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are
individuals that can go it alone.” –
Margaret Wheatley
Visitwww.peterbuffett.comandChange Our Storyto learn more.
Image courtesy of josie lynn richards, licensed underCreative Commons.
