Your Personal Message by Eric Handler

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say?

(Author: Eric Handler)

This is a prompt that makes me conflicted. I hesitate with anyone who would dictate that what is right for him is right for all. It is from such convictions that oppression becomes moral, and war becomes inevitable.

I much prefer the limit of 1 million people, for in holding one personal truth, if it is personal enough, chances are good that there are, indeed, 1 million people who share that truth themselves.

I would prefer to share a truth with those who are on the cusp of realizing it, against the prospect of declaring something to be true to a crowd of those opposed to the idea.

Where, then, can we preach our truth? If we preach to the choir who agrees with us, we effect no change. If we preach to the opposition, those who stalwartly believe in the opposite philosophy, we gain no traction, and effect no change.

The only possibility of fruitfully expressing an idea to others, then, is to express it to those who are on the cusp of change already, or are lost. Those without opinion. Those who know that they do not know. Those who are searching.

If I had something to say to 1 million of those people…then, I could convey a personal truth that would be heard, and could help them to change.

It is from our greatest wound that we derive our greatest strength.