Last year, a friend witnessed the following interaction in a Zoom meeting about how to handle her child’s school year given the reality of COVID-19.
The conversation was heated, quite divided between those who wanted in-person school and those who wanted remote learning. A decisive policy would come down to a vote.
One parent was so furious that she said destructive things to the group and then signed off abruptly, minutes before the vote.
The vote was taken and tallied, not in her favor.
She signed in a few minutes after the vote, and asked to be counted. That was not what the process that group decided on, and so her vote was not registered.
The world tends toward disorder, so there are everywhere chances to make things better. We only get a vote about how our shared future unfolds when we show up. And our vote counts exponentially when we show up generously and with grand imagination.
Paul's Blog 