The last 3 wks have been intense as far as travel, for 2 reasons: 1) school planning sessions & presentations at the beginning of the yr – that’s when everyone wants to get off on the right foot w teachers, students, parents, & 2) we began traveling to film this docuersiers on the challenges we ALL face, that make us a lot more the same, than diff.
Our travel over that time: out of the country to Miami to LA to Laguna to Chicago to St Louis to Philly back to NY to Buffalo to South Carolina to Philly to Reno to South Tahoe to San Diego, finally back to NY.
Why bring up those location? I/we met SO many diff ppl in SO many diff areas – politically, socially, economically, etc. I think of how fortunate I’ve been, during a time when this country (& the world really), has sadly been so divided from so many current events, to travel & get to know so many seemingly DIFFERENT ppl who, once I got to know them, at their core, are actually not much diff at all.
As a representation of that – meet Anthony or “Ant” who was our Uber driver from Reno to Tahoe ➡️ when we were filming Dr. Hayes from ACT Therapy. Ant heard me on the phone talking abt an upcoming event. Our trip was abt an hour, & my call abt 15 min. After the call, he asked: do you work in MH? I said yes. He asked how I got in it – that I looked more like “a sports guy.” So I told him my origin story of the MH crash I had from the life events (& listed them so that he got to know my WHY).
The reason Ant took the pic on the next slide: he opened up to me, that he was sexually abused by a fam member as a child & wants to tell his SameHere Hero story. Keep in mind, my story has NOTHING to do w sexual abuse. But – vulnerability makes others feel that safe space & want to open up.
Once he shared, I told him abt Theo Fleury being part of our Alliance & how Theo was a survivor of child sexual abuse as well. Ant’s eyes lit up…he wasn’t alone.
Ant’s was just one example on this trip like that. Black, white, brown, yellow…D or R…old or young…diff parts of the country – when we’re vulnerable & share what we’ve been thru, we are all at our core, part of the same team.
