Humility

Feb 15

Humility is a sense. It is as dependable as a sense of smell, any other sense really. Our senses are fallible and yet we give them preference over the granola senses, like intuition, premonition, and the highly underrated humility. Our humility, like intuition, allows us to measure ourselves against the given circumstances. It might be confused with demeaning oneself to accommodate one’s surroundings. That is not the case. There may be deference, but only in the sense of acknowledgement. Humility does not ingratiate itself to anything. Humility is what got Cordelia banished in the play King Lear. Cordelia told their dad, the king, when asked, “How much do you love me?”

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty

According to my bond; no more nor less.

Humility is truly having an understanding of one’s place in the Universe. It is knowing one’s skills, boundaries, weaknesses and temperament. It brings one’s knowledge of oneself to bear in the situation as best suited. No more; no less. It doesn’t grandstand, but states clearly “I can do that” when one can. It has the self awareness to say “I don’t know” when that holds true. Humility is the primary sensibility required to be of service—that is to others and to oneself.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Pink Flowers

Pink Flowers is a Black trans artist, peacemaker, educator, and pleasure activist whose work lives at the intersection of embodiment, governance, and cultural transformation. Trained in Theater of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting, and Navajo-informed Peacemaking practices, Pink designs spaces where conflict can be addressed, power can be examined, and joy can be reclaimed.

Her artistic and pedagogical practice draws from African trickster cosmology, Brazilian Joker traditions, shamanic ritual, and cooperative economics. She is the founder of the award-winning Falconworks Theater Company (2005–2021), which used popular theater to build civic capacity and participatory leadership in historically marginalized communities.

Pink served for over five years as a trained Peacemaker in the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, facilitating restorative processes within the New York City court system. From 2015–2018, she worked in cooperative business development with the Center for Family Life, supporting worker-owned enterprises in immigrant communities.

She currently serves as Director of Education and Training for the Inter-Cooperative Council in Ann Arbor, where she leads leadership development and conflict engagement initiatives. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at the Stretch Festival in Berlin and the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference.

Across ritual, performance, mediation, and institutional design, Pink’s work asks a central question:

What becomes possible when we refuse shame and choose conscious power instead?

Humility

Moratorium on Love