Book 318 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Tell the Truth!

Book – All In: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King (Part 1 of 2)

Book Description:

In this spirited account, Billie Jean King details her life's journey to find her true self. She recounts her groundbreaking tennis career—six years as the top-ranked woman in the world, twenty Wimbledon championships, thirty-nine grand-slam titles, and her watershed defeat of Bobby Riggs in the famous "Battle of the Sexes." She poignantly recalls the cultural backdrop of those years and the profound impact on her worldview from the women's movement, the assassinations and anti-war protests of the 1960s, the civil rights movement, and, eventually, the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Reflection:

About 4 months prior to writing this reflection, I attended my first ever US Open Tennis Championships in New York City. As a lifelong tennis player and fan, this was truly a bucket list event for me, and I loved every single minute of it.

As we left our hotel in Manhattan and grabbed an uber to take us to the tournament venue in Queens, I punched in the address to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as our destination. The name, “Billie Jean King National Tennis Center” meant nothing to me other than a final destination to point our uber driver in the right direction. Beyond being aware of the name Billie Jean King as a lifelong tennis fan, I really knew nothing about her beyond that she was at one time a great tennis player who also happens to be a Lesbian.

After taking this journey with her, I now could not be prouder to say that our national tennis center is named after this amazing human being! While she was a fierce competitor and champion on the court, what she has done (and will continue to do) off the court is far more impressive. This lady never stops fighting for what she believes in and doing what she can to be an agent of change in this world. I will now proudly say that I went to the US Open at the BILLIE JEAN KING National Tennis Center for the rest of my life.

While I learned a lot of great things from Billie in her autobiography on how to fight for others and be an agent of change, the biggest lesson I learned is that you can’t forget to fight for yourself in that process.

All I could think about the whole time listening to her story is the quote, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

Throughout Billie’s life she has done an incredible job of bringing forth her values of caring, compassion, and equality to fight for the right for others to bring forth what is inside of them to share with the world. Unfortunately, she did that while suppressing her own need to share who she really was on the inside at the same time. Eventually, this suppression of her internal self almost destroyed her. However, in true Billie Jean King fashion, she showed her true champion form once again and followed her own advice to adjust. She embraced the advice she learned from MLK Jr to keep moving forward which eventually led her to a place where she felt secure and strong enough with herself to share this story with the world.

For me, Billie’s story was the ultimate reminder to always TELL THE TRUTH, and not to be afraid to share who you are on the inside with the world or else!

That statement, tell the truth, brings up an interesting question though…what even is truth in this world? Is anything true? If so, how do you know for sure? Furthermore, if you’ve followed along with this journey, you will probably be thinking, doesn’t Chris always preach that he knows nothing?

Well, you’d be right, and I don’t, but that statement isn’t 100% accurate.

While I truly believe that I don’t know anything, there is one very important thing that I do know for sure, and that is how I feel each day that I have the privilege to wake up with the opportunity to exist in this incredible world. This is the only truth that any of us will ever know in this world. If how we feel on the inside doesn’t match our actions on the outside, that is when the trouble begins.

This reminds me of our reflection 55 from the book Lying by Sam Harris when we learned that the only person you can never lie to is yourself. There will always be an internal fight until it is resolved one way or another if there is a disconnect between how you feel on the inside and how you present yourself to the world on the outside through your words, actions, and deeds.

The only solution to that is to bring forth what is inside you and share that truth with the world. You can never run from it so you might as well start embracing it.

Thank you for sharing your story and your true self with the world, Billie! I’m sure that had to feel pretty damn good!

Question: Are you brave enough to share all of yourself with the world?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - All In: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King