The Power of Participation and Belief in Second Chances

I’ve been an avid Star Trek fan for decades. I’m engaged by the adventures that bring new knowledge and discoveries—heartened by values reaffirmed and lessons learned.

A recent episode of Star Trek Discovery brought the crew into first contact with an entity they called Species Ten-C. The problem: This entity had, unintentionally, destroyed an inhabited planet and the crew doesn’t know how to communicate with it to make it understand what it had done. None of the thousands of languages in their system is a match and they’re stumped.

Captain Michael Burnham and the Council heads stand gazing in wonderment at the mesmerizing light pattern the entity produced. Discovery’s AI system, Zora, informs them that the entity’s brain structure is “widely unusual,” with molecule clusters – each comprised of hydrocarbons made up of 25% joy, 22% sadness, 17% peacefulness, 14% irritation, 12% surprise, 10% fear. Interestingly, while they were on the entity’s former planet, they found hydrocarbons that when touched, made them feel intense emotions of love and fear. I thought this a magnificent conceit.

One of the principles of our JLP model is Shared Leadership—a perspective that holds each individual as a leader in their own right, contributing their gifts and skills to the group’s objective and success. Reminded by one of her crew members that a diversity of thought was successful on the planet, Captain Burnham called her crew together to gain a variety of perspectives. Standing in a circle they brainstormed possibilities that could shine a light on communicating with Ten-C. The crew began to swing:

“If a problem stumps you, examine your assumptions.”

“What if the hydrocarbons were a language?”

“How could the hydrocarbons contain emotional and semantic content?”

“What if each hydrocarbon is a symbol or a word and the molecules are a message?”

“Maybe the lights are a key to read the hydrocarbons in a specific order.”

“Maybe it’s like music. A piano piece evokes emotions but also has a structure of pitches, note lengths, tempo.”

 It was a beautiful medley of creative flow—like a jazz band, each person offering a new perspective and contribution, adding to or expanding on what the previous person had put forward. The crew played with options and scenarios, weaving possibilities which brought them to a solution for communication.

Some in leadership positions wanted to destroy the entity immediately so the destruction of another world could not occur again. Burnham was determined that if they could find a way to communicate and determine if the entity was empathetic, they would know the reason for the path of destruction the entity had left behind. Captain Burnham held firm to her belief that if there was a chance to establish a relationship with the entity, they had to take it.

Belief initiates and guides action.

–Octavia Butler

The Falcon Man

Rodney Stotts knows about second chances. Stotts spent his twenties dealing drugs in southeast Washington D.C., during the crack epidemic. After a five-month jail term, Stotts got a job with an environmental organization cleaning up the Anacostia River. That’s where he was introduced to birds and falconry. There was no turning back. Stotts now knew how he wanted to participate in his community—and what would give his life value and meaning.

“Allow yourself to be wrong. You’re not the mistake that you made,” he says.

Now known as “Bird Brother” and heralded as a master falconer, Stotts is working as director of raptor conservation and youth empowerment at Wings Over America. Stotts is also a mentor and community leader, visiting up to 50 schools in the D.C. area each year and working with teens through partnerships with the Metro Police Department and the district’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Young people learn to care for the raptors, to handle and feed them. They also build aviaries on vacant plots of land, learning construction, plumbing, and electrical skills.

Rodney Stotts believes deeply, as did Discovery’s captain, in second chances—for the injured birds of prey that he nurtures back to health and for the teenagers who have dropped out of high school and are eager to learn how they can navigate life choices.

Learning together in a process of spirited discovery can be our way of building and strengthening relationships and moving for with greater resolve.