Hi there,
Welcome to the fifth issue of One Good Word from Dr. Dan.
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Today's issue is about power, and why it's easier to change the world than you think.
One Good Word
I hated gym class.
My body didn't move the way I wanted to. I couldn't run fast. I couldn't make the ball go where it was supposed to go.
And that was a problem because my awkward body let people down. Nobody wanted me on their team, because everyone knew I would make them lose.
This became a crisis one day in high school, when our PE teacher proclaimed that we would be playing football for the next month. In every other sport, I could fade into the background. I could take a dodgeball and get out before anyone noticed me. I could volunteer for right field and hope the inning ended before the ball came anywhere near me.
But football had stakes. If the ball sailed my way and I dropped it, that could easily cost my team the game. And then little Dan - awkward, autistic, trying his best - would have even less hope of being liked.
I don't remember the name of the kid who saved me. I don't even remember what he looked like. But I'll always remember what he did.
He was our team captain, a player from our school's varsity team. He sized me up - taking in both my complete lack of coordination and obvious dread.
And then he pointed at me and said, "I want you."
He chose me to be the center - the player who hikes the ball to the quarterback to start the play. This sounds like a prestigious position, but all I actually had to do was:
1) Hand him the ball and then
2) Stand there and be in the way
I could do that! I had a lot of practice being in the way by accident; I could definitely be in the way on purpose.
And while I wasn't the best center (in fact, I was pretty bad at it), it didn't matter.
With a single act of kindness, he moved me from the awkward kid on the outskirts to (literally) being in the center. He made that month the most fun I'd ever had in gym class. And he planted the seed for me to think "Maybe sports aren't so bad" - which ultimately blossomed into many wonderful life memories, from fencing class in college to weight lifting with my best friend in grad school.
We think of power as something that belongs to billionaires and politicians. But my captain changed my life, and I'm still grateful two decades later.
What is power, if not that?
And if a high schooler can wield that power by choosing to be kind...what might you be capable of?
And if a high schooler has the power to change my life with his kindness... what might you be capable of?
Three Good Things
Gate 4, a beautiful poem that reminds us of what the world should (and can) be.
Nalua, a free minimalist breathing app developed by One Good Word reader Dennis.
Mountains Beyond Mountains and Tattoos On The Heart, a two-pack of biographies about people who made it their life's work to stand by the people everyone else had given up on. (Affiliate link.)
(Got a good thing you think other readers will enjoy or find helpful? Suggest it by replying directly to this email!)
Thanks for reading!
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~ Dr. Dan
P.S I'm hard at work on my in-depth burnout recovery course. If you have suggestions for topics you would like it to address, please respond to this email and let me know - and if you want to get early access when it's finished, please sign up for the waitlist.