Ooooh Ooooh Oooh. …. Don’t let go while I’m hanging on ‘Cause I’ve been hanging on so long.
Intellectual intelligence has, in the recent decades, been distinguished from emotional intelligence. What predicts future success? Emotional intelligence. Like an over- protective parent who rationalizes or justifies her child’s every mis-step, or intervenes too often and too soon, the intellect will thwart the emotional growth of the heart and lead us, unwittingly, to jeopardy…again and again…until the shell of the intellect is cracked by the storms of life, allowing some light in to reveal where there is festering deprivation, illusion, or pain lying in darkness. Before the crack’s light is covered in bandages, allowing us to move on as we were, we would be blessed to encounter the healing conditions that include emotionally intelligent mirrors that will not reflect back what was known but, rather, what can be known. Emotional intelligence is beyond nice or kind. It is beyond platitudes, formulas, positive thinking, and good marketing. Emotional intelligence is a quiet patient space between ourselves and the co-existing shadow and light being revealed…where we may hear our own voice for the first time. It is awakened…with steady practice. It is the part of our self that refuses the bandages and seeks mirrors that do not merely reflect back what is easy, instant and feels good or what culture dictates, persuades, tempts. It is the part of self that seeks to be alive and do more than “hang on”.
