What are the lessons we as a nation are learning from Parkland? We are learning to listen to a new generation of young leaders – driven by violent circumstances – stand up and speak out for those who lack a voice: the young, the vulnerable, and the victims.
What these young leaders are desperately seeking is empathetic, compassionate leaders who are strong enough to put an arm around someone who is suffering, not arm them with a weapon. In this search, they themselves are becoming the leaders they seek to find.
What we are witnessing is the RISE of a new generation of empathetic, compassionate young leaders who speak to the HEART of what makes us human, what makes us care about each other and what gives us hope.
“We will outlive you,” Parkland surviver David Hogg reminded members of the Florida State Legislature. In the face of pain, suffering, and rage, these students are asking lawmakers to reduce children’s RISK of death by an AK-15 shooter.
Their raw courage fills us with hope for the future. It inspires us to ask ourselves: How shall we live? Free of Fear? Mindfully? In community, with empathy, care and compassion for ALL life on Earth?
Led by children, we are the generation that is emerging from the cocoon of a dark fear into the light. We are learning to fly FREE of fear.
What unites us is a common believe that we can also LIVE free of fear. We believe in human kindness and random acts of kindness. We see that our compassion for others acts like gravity to draw us together.
I call this coming together: SYNERGY.
We don’t need another school shooting to unite us. We don’t need another war. What we need is to come together united in a common belief that we are smarter together, stronger together, and better together.
Synergy unlocks the untapped potential that has been polarized and suppressed in both men and women and frees us to express our full potential. Synergy happens when we shift our focus from labels like: winners/losers, right/wrong, male/female to TRAITS like empathy, collaboration, and compassion.
What are the traits that enable us to work well and play well with others? Play fair and share everything? Appreciate and respect the differences in others?
It’s time to synergize!. The best is yet to come.
Alexia Parks, award-winning entrepreneur, UN Mentor to the Goldman Sachs/Fortune #1 Award Winner “Most Powerful Women in the World” (2014), and Founder of 10TRAITS Leadership is a recognized global expert on gender equality and leadership. An Influencer, she has appeared as an expert on national, international TV news, in TIME magazine, and formerly wrote for the national desk of The Washington Post.
