(If you would like to hear Lori read the story click)here

 

Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection.

 

So says Brené Brown, a smart woman whose presentation about a virtue that outclasses brains has five and a half million views. Of course, if I am any indication perhaps it is only a million because I have watched it five and a half times. 

 

Our culture is perhaps more obsessed with numbing our inadequacies than any in history. We manipulate our bodies, our moods, our bank accounts, our persona in a relentless chase for perfection. Addictions, plastic surgery, stimulants, obsessive spending are driven by a need to be seen as worthy.

Yet the very prize we seek is an arm's length away. We can pull down the masks obscuring us from the people we live with. We can dare to be vulnerable.

 

The three most significant hours I ever spent with my own brother and sisters was when a therapist guided us to answer a deceptively simple question.