Good morning from a cold (-2 at the airport) Vancouver! An arctic air mass has descened for one last kick it seems. I hope you are warm, wherever you are.
The week before last, I had the good fortune to share a cup of tea and a conversation with Dr. Rod Chamberlain of the Kamehameha School in Hawaii. The school is funded in part by the lands left to it by the last of the Hawaiian Royal Family, and they’re work is focused on teaching and enhancing Hawaiian culture and language for Hawaiian children across the state. An important enterprise, especially give how other first nations children have been treated over the last centuries.
In our conversation I made a joke about being a ‘howlie’, a derogatory term used by Hawaiian people to refer to non-Hawaiians. Rod asked if I knew where that word came from, and when I said I didn’t, he explained. When two native Hawaiians greet each other, they will touch foreheads, and breathe in and out, in essesence breathing in each other’s breath, or ‘ha’. When the first Europeans arrived on the islands they wanted to greet by shaking hands. (Shaking right hands in European culture means that neither of us has a weapon and are therefore friendly). This behaviour, for the Hawaiians was bizarre and alien, and so they began to refer to the Europeans as ‘ha ole’, ‘without breath.’ Over the centurie the words were contracted and anglisized into ‘howlie’.
Now upon further reflection, I have been thinking about how often we get feedback that we might at which we might first react negatively; I might be hurt to be called ‘howlie’ for example. But if I take the time, and do the reflection and analysis, I might find a deeper truth about myself in that feedback. I’ve learned to call this the “Elephant Principle.” I need a wise nose with which to investigate, big ears with which to listen, and thick skin because I may not always like what I hear. It is by engaging with the negative feedback I receive that I may well move much closer to being the leader I want to be.
May this week be filled with such opporuntities for us all.