This is the Time to be Everything We Are

Bono's Leading...

Before I took the extraordinary step of moving cross-country to attend culinary school in my ‘60s, I had a quick chat with a multiple past client, a person I’d represented in real estate sales three times. She said, “Linda, you’re capable of so much more.”

What? I had a very well-developed business, crafted over 25 years, and all my clients were referrals. I was at the top of my game. I couldn’t imagine what she saw in me that I wasn’t seeing in myself.

Although it feels puzzling, we often have clues to who we might be in the world through the lens of others’ observations. Following the breadcrumbs almost always involves taking risk.

One thing, I did know. I knew I could no longer live my Midwest life. Over the course of nearly ten years I had become acquainted with - and then deeply attracted to - West Coast living, traveling back and forth for business.

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Women are particularly susceptible to feeling the pressure of expectation that begins when we are young. Some pressures are overt; many others are not, but are pressures nonetheless. Social, familial, professional pressures.

Something as common as young student placement in unchallenging, sedentary educational settings erases the possibility of teaching toward a girl’s individual strengths. The pressures (and role expectations) only increase. My generation, the Boomers, brought the opportunity to be and do anything we desired, but with the huge caveat of not reprioritizing our personal responsibilities. The remarkable successes of subsequent generations of women stand on the shoulders of the women who modeled it for us.

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I tell this story as an opportunity for you to expand your voice in the world, a voice that truly aligns with the best you can be. Using the profound freedoms we have in this country for one’s own growth must be coupled with protecting them. We do that with our voices, with our actions.

I couldn’t have imagined my life as it is today. I’m a chef. I co-founded a boutique confection company dedicated to showcasing the flavors and aromatics of the Pacific Northwest. I have a career I love as a writer. Oregon is my home.

Among the things I couldn’t have imagined was my resolve to protect our democratic rights. It became clear to me, though, that the wealth of freedoms we possess must be protected by every generation. It’s my turn. It’s our turn.

Yesterday, I read an opinion piece in The Atlantic written by Bono, entitled “The Gorgeous Unglamorous Work of Freedom.”

“… what the fight for freedom needs today: faithful, stubborn, unselfish effort. For many years I quoted that line of Martin Luther King Jr.’s: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I now know it does not. It has to be bent.”

Living in a democratic republic, a free society, is messy and inconvenient and imperfect and challenging. And remarkable.

A new generation of leaders is arising. We are among them.

My voice. Your voice.

#useyourvoice