As I write, I am feeling very surrounded by brilliance.

And I don’t mean ordinary brilliance.  I deal with a lot of brilliant people every day.  They are kind.  They are funny.  They are charitable.  They are graceful.  They are self-aware.  In short, they are brilliant.

But that’s not the kind of brilliance I’m talking about.  Today, I am researching.  I am reviewing all the kernels, all the nuggets of wisdom I have collected in the past couple weeks.  It’s part of my job to do that sort of thing.  But today it is special.  In the last few weeks I have been feeling quite overwhelmed by our “ready-fire-aim” culture.  It seem each time I turn around, there is something even more destructive to humanity and more contrary to human values.  It was beginning to get to me on a new level.  I think maybe my age is making me less and less capable of fending off these attacks on my value system.  I feel for so many folks who are being attacked for reasons that have nothing to do with their behaviors.

And then, I find brilliance.  I find people saying, writing and just being the kind of people I know we can be.  I am inspired by them, yes, but more importantly, I am comforted by them.  I am comforted that we have not completely lost our path.  I am comforted that we have not all become small and weak.  I am comforted to learn that we haven’t all taken our hands off the wheel.

Some of these folks are alive.  Some are long ago dead, and one is recently dead.  Some of their ideas are ancient and some are brand new.  I thought I’d just list them here for you, so you yourself can see that there is still humanity out there, waiting to be re-discovered and repossessed by the masses who have been lead astray in favor of convenient arguments that comfort their misplaced fears.  (In no particular order)

• Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German Minister)
• RaQuel Hopkins (American Therapist)
• Pastor Otis Moss III (American Minister)
• David Graeber (American Anthropologist)
• Marcus Aurelius (Roman Politician)
• Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)
• Carl Rogers (American Psychologist)
• Bernie Sanders (American Politician)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson (American Astrophysicist)
• Pope Francis
• Timothy Snyder (American Historian)
• Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Minister)
• Scott Galloway (American Professor)
• Tom Morello (American Musician)
• Banksy (Artist, otherwise unknown)
• Dave Chappelle (American Comedian)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Author)
• Jonathan Haidt (American Professor)
• Jordan Peterson (Canadian Psychologist)

I probably don’t agree with everything every one of them says and I can see here that my list leans heavily toward American, male and white, so that needs some help, but my intent to communicate WHO inspires or or WHERE I am finding brilliance, but rather to inspire you to remember who would be on your list.  Just go find your own brilliance so you can remember that it is still with us despite the everyday barrage of insanity.

Where are you finding brilliance these days?