A courageous address from Brene Brown at last year’s TED summit in Houston, jam-packed with insight and premised on a concept of ‘enoughness’ which has more than a little in common with what we talk about on here so frequently. It’s, um, enough to make one wonder where Brown, the social worker responsible for that fantastic article on Perfectionism a few months back, is coming from. That is, it seems positively soaked in Christian understandings, endorsing in roundabout ways the healing power of repentance, our enslavement to self-justification and inherent obsession with righteousness, the entire idea of strength in weakness, she even touches on grace in parenting. And minus a grounding in something a bit more realistic/Eternal, her notion of ‘whole-heartedness’ is almost a direct borrow from the church, going so far as to co-opt religious language.
Of course, there are plenty of bones to pick – this is not a theological talk – but the congruence is remarkable. And her wonderful delivery is a case in point re: the power of vulnerability. Has she listened to Breaking The Fourth Wall? You be the judge, ht CC:
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10 responses to “Brene Brown on The Power of Vulnerability”
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I really needed this today.
I’m surprised that this was your take on the talk. I felt it was quite anti-Gospel. I’m enough is not the message of the Gospel. People who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe they’re worthy of love and belonging is almost right, but because it’s mostly truth and partly lies is what worries me. We are not worthy of love and belonging, and realizing that is the start of accepting grace and knowing we are loved and we do belong. Maybe I didn’t read correctly what was being said here. Could you speak more to this?
Jill, I think it is about Christ’s acceptance of us that allows us to accept our imperfection and the imperfection of others. . & be comfortable to talk about it. (… PLUS we grow up in “We’re America, hell yeah” so we “drink the Kool-Aid” even more perhaps than other cultures do?) We also pass along the shame we have not dealt with to our kids so… that’s how the sins of the generations keep on keepin’ on. I dunno… would love to hear what DZ has to say on this. 🙂