So, based on your feedback we’ve decided just to do a couple TIM Talks a week so you have time to both watch and think about them if you so desire. We may write short-but-meaty posts on the other days, or we may not. We’re a puzzle.
In today’s TIM Talk, I think back to something our son, Will, said back when I was getting ready to give a TEDx talk in 2012 about our journey together with autism spectrum disorder. To learn more about Tim’s talks, workshops, and webinars, visit TimMilesTalks.com.
One of my favorite – and indeed the most personal – of the talks we give to people is called 10 Hidden Keys to Team, Time, or Serving Others. Well, that’s the left-brain, the logical, rational, sequential, little dude with a badge title you have to give a talk for people to put it in the convention brochure.
We call it… our friends call… and we hope you call it, “Daddy, I have a question.”
It’s the story of our son, Will, and our journey of looking at the world a little differently with help from his autism. It’s made him a superhero… to us… to those who know and love him, and he’s taught us so much about life and how to live it and work and how we work it.
Quickly, the ten lessons are these…
Now, Will is certainly the inspiration for and genesis of nine of the ten, but he’s the actual author of what’s most certainly my favorite and one that certainly seems appropriate for a Monday… especially, like, the last Monday of the first month of a new year with all those other Mondays of 2018 still facing us down.
Back in 2012, when I first developed this as a TEDx talk, Will was seven… and he was into outer space in a big, big, way. I told him, “Hey, Will… I’m gonna talk to some folks about how to live better lives and how to be more awesome… do you have any advice for them?”
Now, Will was pretty much non-verbal until he was about five, and here he’s like seven, so I’m just… thankful… we have this on video. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, with advice on how to be more awesome, William Reis Miles…
To watch the video go to the 3:07 mark of the video above!
Have fun! And so, after he recorded that Blair Witch style on my phone, I thought, well that was cute… and maybe you did, too, but I thought, “You know, even though my wife Deidre and I speak fluent Will… other people might not be so… refined…”
So, I transcribed it for the video, and as I did, I realized how brilliant are son was… and it wouldn’t be the last time…
Yes, he was into space, yes, he was put on the spot and spoke about what happened to be on his mind, but yes, he also said… in saying “when one door closes, another opens.”
He said, essentially, “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”
You could easily argue he was inadvertently (or providentially) modeling the behavior of Jesus did dying on the cross, in Luke 23, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Jesus, who’d been brutally and relentlessly assaulted by his captors, in one of his last acts, suffering beyond all suffering… looked to the heavens and forgave them. By looking to the light, he became the light of the world.
And in the sermon on the mount, similarly, He instructed his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
This week, something’s going to happen to you that upends your apple cart, that upsets your universe. Know that these trials are opportunities… to find strength in grace. Know that a whole world opens up when you turn the other check… know that black holes are doorknobs to other universes.
Thanks, Buddy…
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