Aaron Davis: Want to change hearts? Don’t get comfortable

Aaron Davis — who presented Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative address at UNMC — said it’s what is in the heart that counts.

The good and bad of people lives in their hearts and any true change must start there, too.

Tell me something good On Monday at the Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative address, speaker Aaron Davis instructed audience members to: Introduce themselves to two people they didn’t know; and Ask their new acquaintances to, “tell them something good.” Below are the two people the writer met. Barb Johnston’s good news was that she just started her new job at the medical center three weeks ago. Ella Bowers was excited because she had gone to a fiddle lesson on Sunday.

Comfort zones must be broken if people want to change their hearts, Davis said.

To illustrate his point, Davis had the audience conduct an ice-breaking exercise (see sidebar).

“Ask questions. Try new things. Visit new places and I don’t mean other countries really as much as go to parts of town that you don’t usually visit,” Davis said.

Comfort is the enemy of change and it’s a vice that Davis feels has been too readily embraced by his generation.

“If there is one thing that infuriates me about my generation, it is our slack,” Davis said, noting that this comfort is possible thanks to the sacrifices and suffering of Dr. King and those from previous generations.

Look within

Another way to break out of one’s comfort zone, Davis said, is to question what is in one’s own heart.

“If we are honest with ourselves, everyone in this room has a prejudice that we carry in our hearts,” Davis said.

Davis urged the audience to acknowledge, examine and discard such prejudices.

“We have to deal with the issues in our own hearts,” Davis said.