On Wednesday night I attended the Concannon Oration, which is a speech given each year by a prominent speaker on a topic relevant in today’s world and is held at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba. It is attended by the residential students of Concannon College, students of the other residential colleges, academics from the Uni and members of the public who are interested in the topic. This year the speaker was Br Damien Price a Christian Brother who began by asking us “Are you MAD? MAD meaning; Making a Difference. He then challenged us through weaving stories to be disturbed by what he said. To look at situations differently and to be that person who listens to others, who shares with others and is entrusted with the story of others.
He told stories of women who had been abused, refugees whom he was privileged to spend time with and become part of their story and of people living on the street who shared their story with him. The common theme – story. I’ve said it before through my posts here that stories are powerful. Ultimately each and every one of us on earth have a story to share and everyone’s story is definitely worth being heard. We can learn so much from others, we can make changes in our own lives by hearing the stories of others and we can advocate for those whose voices are not heard by the masses.
I’ve come to realise that yes, hearing stories are important but sometimes we also need to share those stories if the world is to change. We need to let people know that what they share is important and worthy of our attention especially when we hear of injustices. Sometimes what we hear we don’t have the right to share, but we should feel honoured that we were trusted enough to be told the story, being there and being present far surpasses everything. Here I am reminded of the saying we have two ears and only one mouth, we should use them in that proportion. Listen twice as much as we speak. It isn’t easy but something worth thinking about. Perhaps really listening, careful thoughts and wisely chosen words are the key.
Towards the end of his presentation, Br Damien shared the following YouTube clip. It is a poem by Melbourne poet Joel McKerrow, called For Tomorrow. It is both powerful and challenging. One statistic mentioned in the poem (who knew you could do such a thing as include statistics into a poem!!!) was that women work 2/3 of world’s working hours and get paid only 10% of the world’s income. I would not have known this, if I didn’t hear the story. I challenge you to really listen to the poem and to hear the story that Joel shares. My question would then be: Are you MAD?
So now from here it’s time to start listening!
Catherine
P.S. I couldn’t help but conduct further research on Joel. I found another clip from a TEDxUniMelb entitled The Power of Story. Also worth taking the time to listen to.
So Now From Here 