Show me some I.D.

I deviated yesterday and didn’t address this like I said I would. Nevertheless, two days ago I focused on a tragic incident involving a faculty member from the University of Alabama who murdered three of her colleagues and wounded three others before being taken into custody. Actually, She was just the example of a wider focus on how our expectations fuel disappointment which can easily segway into anger, resentment and even vengeful acts. I quoted no statistics, cited no references and credited no research databases because who would dispute that disappointment is alive, well and poisonous.

So let’s say I’m right and this affliction, from which 100% of humans suffer, is pervasive. What do we do about it? I’ll get to that but for the record, disappointment materializes when parents lie to children, when promotions are given to the less qualified and when games are lost. Disappointment rears its head in the event that your first choice in colleges, graduate or otherwise, rejects your application. It’s present when you’re dumped and when your mentor displays a gross character flaw. I don’t need to go on but you know how I do. Disappointment surfaces in the event that your students text their friends when they should be learning and when your roommate eats the chicken sandwich you left in the refrigerator with your name written on it in permanent marker. Best believe that disappointment can become the broth in which we simmer and result of this recipe can be life poisoning.

I can think of only one real antidote to disappointment and it’s rooted in the spirit of Black History Month. IDENTIFY YOURSELF! I remember learning about Dr. Vivien Thomas,  a poor African-American surgeon who pioneered cardiac surgery, namely with babies suffering from blue baby syndrome. He was born in 1910 and raised in the heyday of post-slavery racism in America. He was among the first if not the first man of color to perform surgery on a white. Immensely qualified through his work with Dr. Alfred Blalock, Thomas was denied opportunities and paid a custodian’s wages for doing medical research. No one presses through such disappointment without a firm grasp of their own true identity.

My entire adult life I’ve listened to people say that God is either fictional or sadistic and I’m convinced that such conclusions say more about the broth in which we stew than it does about the truth of the cosmos. If Dr. Amy Bishop of the University of Alabama had a firm grasp on her acumen and the tenacity to continue her quest for purpose I’m certain that her three victims would still be alive. So now what? When anger, resentment, selfish ambition comes in like a flood and when you’re so consumed with what you and your organization are doing that you don’t ask questions of others to see what they’re doing, you can know that it’s disappointment you fear. We all do. But outcomes are no more predictable in this life than the color of the gum ball that will come out of the machine when you put your quarter in. You lose in life for right reasons and for deceptive ones, due to great competition and as a result of our own mistakes.  All I’m saying is that despite your history, there’s a real identity that stands to impact the world constructively regardless of who sings your praises. Show me some I.D.