The Quiet Voice
On hope in our outer and inner worlds.
José Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen. He is a professional chef with two Michelin stars.
José was recently on the endlessly entertaining podcast, What Now? With Trevor Noah, and toward the end of the episode, Trevor asked him a powerful question.
The context here is that since founding World Central Kitchen in 2010, José has prepared and served food during some of the most devastating humanitarian crises across the world. He continues to do so at the time of this writing.
Trevor’s question to José was simply this, “How do you maintain your hope?“
José’s response:
“I believe there is more goodness than hate in the world. What happens is goodness, goodwill, and the common good it’s very humble and it’s very ... doesn’t have a big voice,” he continues, “It seems hate is what has a big voice and it screams and with very short sentences it’s able to rally everybody.”
**
When I was much younger, I used to play a lot of tennis.
At one point, when I was probably 12 or so, my mum found me a new coach. I think she had been referred to this guy from some other people I was working with at the time.
Apparently this new coach was a big deal.
There’s a quote I think about that’s often attributed to Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
To this I will add: People will also forget what you looked like.
As I type these words, I have no recollection at all about what this tennis coach looked like.
I only remember that he made me feel like crap.
In my memory of him, he would be wearing Wimbledon whites, sitting on the sidelines, and yelling directives at me, while his assistant made me move around the court trying to hit a series of progressively challenging shots.
He had a big voice. Sometimes he screamed. He would often use short sentences.
**
A few years ago I did some work trying to visualize my inner critic.
We all have one. What does yours look like? Do you know? Look and see next time they show up.
Mine? That tennis coach. Sitting in his Wimbledon whites. Yelling short sentences at me.
Just like our outer world, our inner world is a balance of good and bad too.
We should take José Andrés’ words to heart about ourselves. There is more goodness than bad in us.
The thing to be mindful of, is that goodness has a quiet voice.
In a world dominated by noise—ego, comparison, expectation, righteousness, entitlement—we have to be patient and willing to hear the whispers of goodness, then respond to them.
They are always there.
