Lived vs. Learned

The equal value of academic and lived experience

I recently watched Brene Brown’s new Netflix Special and I loved it. I’ve always wanted to do what she did, but I hadn’t seen it before. Nanette by Hannah Gatsby did it too. I want to get on stage, tell the truth about the things folks don’t want to talk about, share in both laughter and tears, and not just for entertainment, but for personal growth and connection to one another.

I work in an environment that considers both academic experience as well as lived experience as employable. This is a bold and humane approach because in a world that votes Tough on Crime and supports a War on Drugs, folks with criminal justice records or addiction in their pasts don’t often fare well at the interview. The organization I work for has recovered addicts running it. We serve the homeless, mentally ill, drug addicted and incarcerated. These populations have done the research that PHDs are doing, but they didn’t get a degree for what they’ve learned, they are stigmatized.

I recently re-watched Brene Browns initial TedX talk, titled The Power of Vulnerability. She revealed in her Netflix special that she had changed topics at the last minute and she chose to talk about vulnerability. She chose to be vulnerable by talking about her least favorite topic. I made assumptions about Brene, wondering if she didn’t feel the need to push forth her academic prowess so that she might be taken seriously. I confess that I judged her for that a time or two, simultaneously using her videos in my classroom at the county jail to discuss blame and the impact of accountability on our lives.

I was judging her, but really what I was doing was justifying my own lack of success to be doing what she was doing. I wanted to be on TedX stages talking about these things I’ve always known are true. I’ve always known the things she says about the value of vulnerability and the power of shame. She self-reports being startled to find shame in the mix. That’s the difference between book-smart and street-smart. When you learn it in a book, your brain gets to dance with it, manipulate it, intellectualize and define it. When life teaches it to you, you hold It in your body and you don’t have a name for it and you can’t think straight and you are so busy fighting the fatigue caused by guarding it, you spend years going in circles and making little distance on the road ahead of you.

I work in an environment that considers both academic experience as well as lived experience as employable. We need each other. I love her research because we do need to get over ourselves and listen to each other. Your experience need not threaten mine unless there is livelihood hanging in the balance of who is right and who is wrong.

In our society it is, hanging in the balance for many. If this conversation makes you uncomfortable, count your blessings. Some of us live it and some of us name it. Either way, we all need to talk about it, because it’s not just me. It’s inside of you too.