Oprah's interview with Timothy Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy, the Chairman of the Special Olympics.
A great lesson on the power and value of vulnerability from Tim Shriver and the Special Olympics.
He shares how he started a movement that focuses on ACCEPTANCE, INCLUSION AND RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES.
Timothy Shriver & Oprah
Eunice Kennedy started the Special olympics! (Shriver's Mother)
:Tell me how you came to write about being fully alive. Timmy: He was programmed to be and did not
choose. These people who are vulnerable
understand something about being present.
He tried to capture this unconditional love from such people with
wisdom. Special Olympics have taught his
fun comes from nothing inhibited. Pp think
fun and soul are different nut fund is living in the soul. They taught him that and humility and
simplicity. Even if you are
disappointed or the world doesn’t come in for you do it again. There is a little bit of Special Olympics in
each one of us.
We all have our vulnerabilities
and want to cross the finish line in our lives.
Being in the moment and to be open about the things inside us that pain
us, trying to hide is the worst suffering.
Rosemary was the third of Kennedy’s children. They kept a secret from the world. It was not
obvious to strangers. By twenty she
became irritable and hard to control. She
was moved to a catholic hospital and until she died at the age of eighty. She visited regularly unlike all else. Everyone was a star were in a competitive
company and trying harder with humor , joy but still tough and there was
Rosemary they all loved her and didn’t have to do anything for her. She didn’t have to do anything to prove she
was worthy. This helped them to feel one
is free. He writes a love and thank you
letter to her and that she is still with them.
She never gave a speech or held a job and that was a big thing for the Kennedy’s. She taught that there are things you earn in
life and others you are given. When you
give someone else you are privileged. There
was equal power of love and shame but love wins. Shame and vulnerability was their secret that
they also barely understood. He saw it
as part of what we are. They all tried
to prove they were not vulnerable and felt they were valuable. But it taught them it was valuable to be
vulnerable. Everything has its own divine
reasoning. Rosemary was the most
radical and her soul was an offering and the hand of God was there and she
helped them to find themselves. We are
conquered by love in vulnerability. Not just
in money and fame.
If you get grief wrong you get a lot of things wrong = about
grief in the family.
The Kennedy family their fame came with restless in completions. He felt a yearning to find something and
discover what mattered most. His parent
had good intention but there was a lot of demand and thought if they did big
then they were valuable. His father kept
asking what have you accomplished etc.
It was always the beginning in the morning, get the most rest, best gift
but there was love in the family. It was
a scoreboard and felt they had to measure up and missed the, e.g. in religion
some people feel they have to earn his love but he is there. Book = fully alive. He learned the unspoken rule that they don’t speak
about loss you just move on... every child grows there is no loss but children
see it. If you don’t have any tool to
channel it, you get it all wrong. If you
get grief wrong you get it all wrong…..
Interview……………..caught ongoing…. (above missed portion)
“…………….We think we hide from children grief but they see it. If you hide from it you hide a lot and you get it all wrong. They didn’t know how to face grief and transform from it. “If you don’t transform it, you will transmit it. To internalize, the pain, provides growth.
We tell children about grief that everyone is in heaven, and move on and get back on the game. We have to be honest and good spirituality is being honest about the pain in loss.
Where you think you wanna go is not the most meaningful thing in life. Loss creates a void and it can be best found through creative expression.
1960 – One woman took action i.e Eunice Shriver got a sporting event for specials. After Robert Kennedy’s assassination, Eunice united people and started the first Olympic. Today Timothy Shriver is the special chairman of the Olympics carrying on his mother’s legacy.
You are a seeker for something: - He is running the special Olympics. It is movement of the spirit that brings in to the specials and if you look at them as beautiful you bring happiness to them. He is run by the Olympics and he is not running it.
Calling – he knew it was his calling at 16 years when asked by the mum and was not sure it was the right thing. He took the risk and later knew he wanted to make it in the Special Olympics. Why does it make some people afraid to face the special. People are scared as they are not well, pretty etc these are all the things we fear and one wakes not thinking they want that for anybody. People always tell them sorry but they don’t like it. They are magical. Sometimes the doctor says your baby is not ok is not healthy is not gonna be normal, it tears, it is a culture in the world -are you normal like everyone else. They go to the games expecting them to feel pity and sorry but they don’t, we fear but they are health and he knows there is strength in the vulnerability that only the vulnerability know. There is only power in vulnerability the other power is superficial. He grew in the spotlight , but where the light is the most is where you feel invisible. Successful we all want to be there, but there you get the most invisible. Where you always want to go is not the most purposeful in life. He found himself happiest in the places no one wanted to be.
Super soul Sunday
Amazing story in the book is that special Olympics in 1968 was the first special Olympics. In that moment, govts were doing nothing, parents were struggling with shame they could not reveal. The mum decided to start the movement with volunteers to start the races for the special. Falling, trembling and one paces and stop and another stops and turns around and waits for the others to the finish line. Amazing!
We sit home and wonder what to do to come first. Let me win and if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt . LET ME BE BRAVE. It is like the source, presence in you that you don’t know you have. His mother new the secret was to try to win but more important was to be brave. Courage is the quality of great, we want to teach children. Being Great comes from being undeterred, so does the great they focus and know where they wanna go and they stay on it. We need to tell children that “when you loose you have a chance to win next time, and you also find a different part of ourselves”. Our culture is driven to win-win-win that when you don’t win and are third place and fall down people feel a sense of despair and feel they can’t go on and it defines themselves and get ashamed of who they are.
We wake up feeling am not what I want to be and if you wake up this way then you are not fully alive.
One of his greatest teachers was blind and disabled, she was later introduced into running and found her purpose and has won many meddles. She later became an inspirational speaker and tell -never let anybody put you down and if they do pick yourself up and get going. She knows her live if worth living.
His book – it was a good exercise and he kept finding stories like say of a boy saying to him - you don’t need to be intimidated. His mum kept telling him not to worry as the governor wears his pants in the morning just like you. It means we are all this together. He kept to be told you don’t need to worry and feel intimidated by the governors etc (they lived with) as the mum did not believe they belong in their kind of life.
Recognize you are more beautiful than you dare to imagine and don’t need to be afraid of anything. To be unafraid of the judgment of others is the greatest thing. Pure souls are the unafraid. As they find there space. Follow your guts as it takes you to the right place. Your Gut is always guiding you to your God.
Soul to soul moment
He meditates once a day; he is a catholic and goes to church every Sunday. He has to practice and can never get enough of getting sacrament.
Defines God – When he sees Him in the eyes of another person and see peace and thinks- he was in the presence of God (special people)
Peaceful place
He has a chapel in his house, his prayer room, it he the most peaceful place. WOW how about me making one soon…..a place of prayer, watch my space….
Longest lesson to learn is that: he matters regardless of what.
We are here – to learn to love unconditionally every fiber in the universe. For the glory that we are all united. We thing we are separate and it is a lie. As soon as we trust tha; - that is why we are here.
When we die we go to a gigantic life, he knows his parents are next to him and all those that he has put to the ground are all around him and they are telling him all is well and all will be well.
Source:
Supersoulsunday, live simulcast 23 November 2014, 7.00pm, www.oprah.com/supersoulsunday
