The second slide of my presentation has a single image with no captions, titles, or notes on the page.
The audience resides in Chennai India. Among other things, they live in the reality of driving in chaos with motorcycles, cars, busses, trucks, and three-wheeled vehicles. Safety comes from the reality that few are speeding. The reason is simple – there is no room! The fastest I have gone on a Chennai road in a taxi is 45 mph. This section of the ride didn’t last long. Traffic quickly dictated that the normal 25-30 mph was our maximum.
The image on the slide is a motorcycle. It is one I have ridden – fast, elegant, and powerful. The subject is “best in class”. My point was that it is often hard to describe something to someone who has not experienced it. The image hit home. Most of the audience rides daily. Even if they have graduated to cars, they used to ride. It is hard to imagine when you are sitting in Chennai that people drive motorcycles sixty, eighty, one hundred, or at times even faster. It does not make sense! It does not compute. In the back of the mind is a nagging thought; it cannot possibly be true.
I am often a metaphorical resident of Chennai in conversations about motorcycles. I sit listening and wondering. I keep trying to figure out how something could be true. I do not understand the materials. I cannot see how the pieces would come together. Some ideas seem, at best, whimsical, farfetched. The subjects go beyond work. Political ideas, policies, social agendas, and religion have all been grounds for confusion.
David likes to remind me of a truth; “The true people taste your [God’s] truth, the bad ones can’t figure you out.” (Psalm 18.26) When I am willing to suspend my doubt and experience, door to understanding emerge. Something changes deep inside that silences the doubt of truth and replaces it with a seed of possibility. Today is an opportunity to experience a mix of the new and the old.
