A Global Day of Silence

 Today, I am advocating a global day of silence for all women and here is why.

I am a Baby Boomer; a female entrepreneur who for the past 15 years of my second career tour has learned to listen to the lessons of my experience.  It is a result of this very dance with the bitter-sweet of life that I look at the world with a clearer set of lenses.

Often I wonder why I just couldn’t have sidestepped all the minutia of my younger years. What was I THINKING? Why was I such a replica of my generation? Oh, I am not beating up on myself,  just reflecting on all the opportunity costs.

In case you have not been acquainted with those two words…I wasn’t either, until I learned about this principle over 30 years as a banker. Opportunity cost is a key concept in economics, and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between scarcity and choice".  In simple terms it just means the cost of passing up the next best choice when making a decision.  In Sherill Calhoun terms…it means, when we are fearful, indecisive, apathetic, uneducated or lost in the twilight zone, we lose something of value that can’t be recaptured or we are confronted with a less attractive outcome.

I’m not complaining about my life. I have been blessed in immeasurable ways. I am just a little disappointed about why I let myself fall into this mindless trap. Do you want to know what the insidious trap looks like? It is well baited with vanity, pride, ignorance, unwarranted drama, persuasion from every direction, poor self-image, stigmas, lack of self-love and fear…predominately fear. Yes, it’s loaded with some pretty crazy garbage and the noise created with each snap of that trap is so subtle most women seem to fall for the bait over and over again.

I, like many of my generation, heard the noise but instead of mindfully demanding a moment of silence from time-to-time to weigh my options I just continued swimming that downstream journey along with everyone else. 

 Although ensuing generations of women, generations X, Y, and Z live with yet another set of lenses, the “trap” remains intact and unwavering.  Am I thin enough; pretty enough; smart enough; popular enough? Can I compete in the world of business and be successful? Can I provide for myself financially? Is it okay for me to speak out about my heart-felt beliefs? Will people (even my family) still like me? Will I find the love of my life? Should I have children? Am I a loser if I don’t marry? What will my friends think? Bait, bait and more bait.

For heaven’s sake, the color of a woman’s hair, her skin, the size of her thighs, breasts, or buttocks…the car she drives; the house she lives in, and the clothes she sports will not help cure cancer or make a difference in the life of a child. 

It pains me to see a highly intelligent, gifted woman, shrink to the point of silence in the shadows of lack of self-worth. What a loss to her family, community and the planet. What does she know that might enrich my life and yours? We will never know, and she will never experience the joy of giving that gift to the world. What then is our existence supposed to be all about?

I say we live to love, be loved and inspire others to open up their beautiful gifts.  It's just that simple. 

 So, please join me in taking at least 24 hours out of the year to silence the noise and toss the bait.   A day to find clarity, purpose and a renewed connection with your brilliance just might change the course of women today, tomorrow, and long into the future.