We All Need to Be Heard

Progress report: I was out of town for three days this week, but I managed to make some progress: two evenings in a row I went down to the hotel fitness room and walked for thirty minutes. Not much in the grand scheme, I guess, but better than I've done in a year or more. Small steps.

I've been thinking lately about the subject line for this post. A couple of weeks ago I was walking across a parking lot to my car and I heard music; a car was behind me, waiting to turn up one of the aisles, windows closed, hip-hop playing where I could hear it from twenty yards away or so. But it wasn't the thumping bass boom you usually hear--this music was clear enough I could understand the lyrics. The car turned up the aisle, the music faded, and I realized it wasn't blaring inside the car. It was playing outside. Someone had attached a speaker to the front of his car so he could share his music with the world.

I can't say I enjoyed the music coming from that car, but it made me think. The driver of that car had a need to be heard. He needed people to know he was there, talk about him, notice him. He didn't even need them to talk to him--in fact, I'd bet he'd rather they didn't--just about him. Like I'm doing right now. He needed to know his presence made a difference. He needed people to hear what he had to say, even if he didn't know the message himself.

A few days later, M.I.A. shot the bird to millions of football fans during the Superbowl halftime show. And last weekend, Nicki Minaj showed up to the Grammys as Red Riding Hood on the arm of the Pope. I have to admit I didn't watch closely enough to figure out what it was about, nor do I really care. These examples further my point: these are people who need to be heard, noticed, talked about. They don't really seem to know what they want to say, but they aren't about to let a little thing like that stop them from talking. Success comes from our reaction--the fact of it, not the substance.

Are the rest of us really so different? Here I sit, writing in one of my two blogs, hoping my words will touch someone who will tell a friend and drive my page-views up. This week I published two tweets, then allowed myself a little bit of excitement when my two tweets earned me three or four new followers. They weren't historical, and they weren't about self-improvement, but people read them and liked them enough to want more.

I find that thrilling, because I need to be heard, too. Why else would I be here? Why else write books, share stories, publish blogs? Money would be nice--but I'll do this whether or not I ever get paid. At least until something better comes along. Because it's more important to be heard and talked about than it is to be rich.

So how do you like to be heard?

Make it a great day!
Scott