What Do Brené Brown and Guns-N-Roses Have in Common?

It sounds like the setup to a bad joke, doesn’t it?

Any idea about the punchline?

Brené Brown has taken the popular culture landscape by storm. She has written and spoken extensively on vulnerability and shame. Her famous “Ted Talk,” years ago, had her reaching a profound revelation. She, inevitably, encountered the nasty backlash and the trolls commenting on her appearance and her credibility.

She let us, the audience, know that, in the depths of her personal crisis, filled with self-doubt, she stumbled across this famous quote from President Theodore Roosevelt…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Whew! Who needs a nap from reading this?

Indeed, as she discovered Roosevelt’s quote, she took to heart the words, “daring greatly.” And she personally applied them, within the context of her trolling critics.

Her clapback response to anyone who criticized her work, as well as the vulnerability it took for her to put it out there, in the first place…

“Anonymous comments? You're not in the arena, man. If you can't say it to me in person in front of my kids, don't say it.”

Translation? Skin in the game? Peanut gallery? What are you doing?

It’s easier to be a critic, in the cheap seats, than it is to be the person doing the risky endeavor.

And this leads me to the Guns-N-Roses element in the equation.

Years ago, “G-N-R” put out an epic musical experience of “Use Your Illusion I and II.” Long, epic songs, with their matching, accompanying videos, came out. It, personally, got me through a painful time of disordered eating and personal trauma. With cathartic songs like “Dead Horse” and “Estranged,” I was participating in my own angry exorcisms, simply by playing their music.

Their cover of the “Wings” classic, “Live and Let Die,” therefore, brings me to the common ground of the “arena,” Theodore Roosevelt, and the connecting person of Brené Brown.

For, at the end of this video, featuring its concert footage, there is a child’s photo of lead singer, Axl Rose, with scribbled handwriting, stating, “Get in the ring,” next to the image.

Get in the ring.

Get in the arena.

Dare greatly.

The critic does not count.

 Do what is in you to do.

Keep going.

And yes, I could go on further about the impact of these connected dots. But connected dots, nevertheless, bring revelation and freedom to our lives, if we can recognize those connections for ourselves.

Recognize yourself in Brené Brown? How about in “G-N-R?”

What’s your arena, your boxing ring, your place of hashing things out, daring greatly, aspiring for something better than what you experience in your life right now?

What connections are being made?

Discover that; celebrate that. For yourself. Right now.

Copyright © 2022 by Sheryle Cruse