Open Heart with Lu Leslan

Superiority vs. Dignity

• Lu Leslan

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 6:44

Where does superiority come from — and what does it cost us? Episode 4 of Open Heart Season 3 traces the origins of superiority from a ten year old girl winning a woodwind competition to the labels we use to divide ourselves. And then shows what dignity looks like in the faces of people who never needed a stage to prove their worth.

SHOW NOTES

EPISODE 4 — SUPERIORITY VS. DIGNITY

Superiority needs a stage to show off. Dignity is a quiet recognition of mutual respect.

This episode asks:

  • Do we know where our superiority originates?
  • Do we question our own superiority?
  • Do we need superiority to survive?

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The woodwind competition at age ten — where pride became the seed of arrogance
  • The Golden Rule — superiority disguised as empathy
  • Progressive language — superiority disguised as sensitivity
  • The onion — is it necessary to name every layer?
  • At the core of our existence — just a human being
  • Rene — eleven years old — whose favorite subjects are math and science
  • Beauty — camp director at the Okavango — fifteen years of quiet leadership
  • MC — whose patience and kindness never wavered
  • Respect is the soil for dignity to flourish

THE EPISODE IN ONE LINE:

"At the core of our existence — there is no label, no color, no category. Just a human being."

NEXT EPISODE:
The Border. We inherited it. We live inside it. And sometimes — survival demands we cross it without permission.

SHARE YOUR STORY:
lu@leslancreativestudio.com

CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST:

Open Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

SPEAKER_00

Do we know where our superiority originates? Do we question our own superiority? Do we need superiority to survive? Welcome to Open Heart Podcast. I am Lou Leslan, your host. This is a podcast where we share ideas, stories, and questions with an open heart so we can be kinder and wiser to ourselves and each other. Every week we'll discuss a topic where I share my observation, ideas, and questions with you. And I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and reflections too. Please send them to Lou at Lesland Creative Studio dot com. Today's topic is superiority versus dignity. Superiority. I was told I have the gift of musicality. At age ten, I won my first woodwin competition. At thirteen, I won again. And with each victory something changed in me. The pride planted the sea of arrogance that followed me everywhere I went. When I realized that arrogance and confidence grow from the same root, I understand why I feel both at the same time. It is a two-edged sword. The courage to perform and the distance to judge came from the same place. The gift of musicality, the attention, the compliments, the recognition of my appearance and attractiveness, all of it stirred together, forming an image I begin to project to the external world. I understood that image and appearance are just part of me, but I carry that image with me everywhere I went. And I have to ask myself, was that confidence or was it superiority already taking root? We say, do not do unto others what you don't want done to you. The root uses you as the measure of all others, but the care is based on my preference, not yours. We make it worse by adding layers of complexity in our speech, people of color, pronouns, LGBTQ, as if we can be separated by the labels we attach ourselves to. That is not humanity, that is not empathy, that is a form of superiority disguised as sensitivity. Is it necessary to name every layer of the onion? At the core of our existence, there is no label, no color, no category, just a human being. Dignity. Dignity is a quiet recognition of mutual respect. My recent travel took me to Zimbabwe in southern Africa. I witnessed dignity in every person I met there. An eleven-year-old girl, Renee, in an overcrowded school with water shortages for five years, whose favorite subjects were math and science. She already knows which tools cannot be taken from her. Beauty, camp director at the Okabongo Delta, who worked her way up for over fifteen years to become the leader she is today. MC, our guy, whose patience and kindness never wavered. These people have shown me what dignity means. Their quiet dignity carried our group across thousands of miles of road, river and sky. Respect is the soil for dignity to flourish. This has been episode four of season three Superiority versus Dignity. Next time, the border. We inherit it, we live inside it. And sometimes survival demands we cross it without permission. Thank you for joining me. I love to hear from you. Please share your comments, stories, and questions. Send them to lu a lessland creative studio.com. This is a podcast where we share ideas, stories, and questions with an open heart so we can be kinder and wiser to ourselves and each other. Take care.