"What makes you so special?"
He gave me a long look, like he was considering the question seriously, though I thought he must be thinking I was crazy.
"I'm
sorry," I added out of embarrassment. "You're... awesome. Everyone likes you. They pay
attention to what you say, like they think you know something the rest
of us don't. Like you understand something we don't. Well, I want to
know what it is."
He shook his head, looking in the distance. "Yea," he said.
After
remaining silent for a little while, a look came across his face and he
got up. "Here, let me show you something." His confidence made me
follow as he guided me to a spot on the train platform.
We
were on a raised track passing over a busy road, the train station an
open-air bridge. Touching my shoulders, he placed me directly in the
center looking out over the traffic. There was railing to prevent people
from falling, but I started to feel a bit dizzy from the hight.
"Look
at them." I did. The way the traffic was coming at me, I felt as if all
the drivers were looking back at me, although I knew this wasn't
likely.
"Make them look at you." I didn't know
what he meant. "Raise your arms. Wave to them." Feeling a little
stage-fright, I did as he instructed. Someone honked. I didn't know if
it was directed at me or not. "See? They like you. Let's give them a
little more."
He came to stand next to me, and gave me one earphone of his headset. He put in the other.
I
put in my headphone. He had chosen some dance music to play from his
phone. There was something in the music that made me smile real big and
want to wave at the cars some more. He was doing the same thing.
He
started dancing, and it was contagious. We were a two-person show, and
they were our audience. I didn't know how many were really watching us,
but I felt like we were communicating something to them. As I danced,
the headphone came out, but I just kept dancing. I noticed more honking.
They were happy: they were happy to see us happy.
He took the headphones out of his phone, and started playing music on the speakers. It was hard to hear over the noises of the street, but we kept dancing anyway. Eventually, the song changed to another.
It was just then that our train came. We ran to the door and found seats. We were laughing, and breathing hard from the exercise.
"Did you feel it?" he asked, after we had sat silently for some time.
"Feel what?"
"You told me I know something other people don't. I was trying to show you what it is. There's a feeling, when you get on a stage, or a soapbox, or shout from a street corner... when everyone is looking at you, and some of them understand you, and agree with you. It's a feeling like... like bringing a light to the darkness, like standing up tall and giving a sign to others, that they can do the same. I think it's an instinct. Our ancestors did better when they stood up and shouted the truth. It makes us feel good. But you need to do it once, to get that feeling, to understand. People who never try, they don't know how good it feels. You don't need to have much of a message to be a good leader. You and I weren't doing anything but dancing, but people paid attention. I'm not special; not really. But I understand how this works. That's why people listen to me. I hope that answers your question."
I didn't know what to say to that. Did I feel what he felt when we were dancing over the busy road? I wasn't sure.
