No, the rest of the song doesn’t apply just yet. This time I’m going simply to talk (and dance), for the folks at Wheaton College. I’ll be speaking not only at the chapel, but with some of the business entrepreneurs and music and dance students. I’m in the final preparations for my chapel talk and thought I’d share some thoughts about what I’ll be sharing.
An Achievement Oriented Society and LOVE
I’m most excited about talking about how Love can ease the perceived burden of an achievement oriented society. So many students suffer from pressures that are imposed by themselves, their families, and society at large, to do more, bigger, and better things. The ideal achievement becomes so prominent in ones life that it begins to intrude on the students’ identity, eventually fighting for attention with the very fuel of self-worth, love. Even instilling doubts and distortions leading to ideas like “I can’t say I love myself, unless I achieve this or that…”
I’m hoping to dive right into the fray and turn the model upside down. Love must come first.
LOVE as a fuel for Entrepreneurship
With the business students we will be talking about the ideas of service, sacrifice, and failure in the context of building businesses. How can Love shape their choices in terms of what businesses to build, but also how they go about building those businesses?
LOVE in the ensemble and in the body
For musicians and dancers proficiency is an undeniable necessity, but virtuosity can limit one’s ability to relate. For the musicians we’ll be talking about roles in the ensemble and how Love for the music AND the other players can provide a fundamental context of relatability. For the dancers we’ll be talking about how the dancer path is a reflection of sacrifice and embodiment and how those two concepts are fueled by and reflected in the greater idea of Love.