Walking Your Talk

The “Back to Basics” Series

“The neck bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the leg bone,
The leg bone connected to the foot bone
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk a-roun’!”

Excerpted from “Dem Bones”
Lyrics by James Weldon Johnson
African-American Author & Songwriter
(1871-1938)
It’s an old song, but it gives a visual reality to the demand for things to connect and align in order to function. Our culture is so focused on speed and multi-tasking that in many cases, the resulting stressors on the component parts of our bodies have knocked us out of physical alignment and left us susceptible to disease. The lack of intellectual alignment impacts our lives as we become prone to lip service and disingenuous speech; a lack of spiritual alignment leaves us vulnerable to Machiavellian ethics and a loss of spiritual or “structural integrity.”

If the parts of a bridge structure become rusted, bent or out of alignment, the structure can no longer “carry the load” for which it was designed. It has lost its “structural integrity.” If the foundations of a building do not connect and align with the upper stories, the building will be declared unsafe and a hazard not only to people inside, but also to those in the surrounding area.

The loss of structural integrity often comes after a major climatic event such as an earthquake or a storm – yet many buildings today are engineered to take a big quake in stride, flexing with the tremor, but “returning to true” in short order. In fact, the real measure of structural integrity is perhaps measured by how much stress a building can take and still return to carrying the load.

I wonder if our definition of “Integrity” ought to begin with a structural context, and add an intellectual and a spiritual one as well? Isn’t it a matter of first forming beliefs and values, then stating them clearly, and finally moving on and living accordingly – so that belief, story and behavior connect and align?

I’ve seen many instances where individuals and corporations have been subjected to such stress, and twisted so far out of alignment that they are no longer able to carry the load. They have bent with the strain and lost their structural, intellectual and spiritual integrity. Sadly, the examples in the public sphere are all too common where what is said or claimed, does not carry through into trustworthy behavior.

Some good life questions:

• Check your beliefs – are they still solid? Do they still carry the load?
• Are you able to tell your story, simply, succinctly and with passion?
• Are your actions a living demonstration of alignment of thought, word and deed?
• Do you have “structural integrity?”

It’s hard to form a belief, tell your story and act accordingly through all aspects of a life AND a career. It’s against the backdrop of a world rocked by seismic events where few people, corporations or countries make honest claim to what they believe, and demonstrate it daily that we begin to see the crystalline power of enduring values, plain speech and behavior that aligns.

And yet, that may be the highest goal; you’ll be a rare being and worth the dedication of family, friends and colleagues. Perhaps it is a fitting time for “returning to true” and then we will be walking our talk.

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