What happens when a writer who helped produce the Statue of Liberty’s anniversary celebration finds herself worn down by the emotional climate of America today?
This week, Shaler McClure Wright shares an essay about rancor, dreams, and hope — and then we play The Whole Mind Game around a tension we both feel. Do we stay quiet or speak out?
👉 Listen or watch here:
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Before we dance around politics, we talk theater.
Shaler began her career organizing large-scale live events, including work connected to the Statue of Liberty’s centennial celebration. She studied acting, apprenticed at the Actor’s Studio, worked alongside legendary live-event producers, and learned what it means to shape a story for a nation.
From there, we move into writing. Shaler describes leaving New York, tutoring, volunteering in the Caribbean, raising her son, and eventually joining Medium to write her own words after a lifetime of speaking others’. Writing as letter-writing. Writing as connection. Writing as a way to leave a record for her child. It’s a conversation about creative practice, walking as meditation, and how lived experience slowly turns into voice.
That foundation matters. Because when she reads her essay, you understand exactly where it comes from.
Shaler reads her piece, “I’m an American Worn Weary by Rancor.”
Rancor isn’t just anger. It’s sustained resentment. It’s the emotional atmosphere that lingers long after a news cycle ends. In her essay, she describes lying awake at night, dreaming in metaphors that feel uncomfortably close to waking life — a house filled with shouting strangers and smoke; a split brain no one can see; a child locked in a cage who eventually becomes a bird and flies.
The dreams move from suffocation to possibility. From division to hope. She quotes Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers,” written on the brink of Civil War, and asks where hope should live now — especially as her son prepares to graduate into what feels like a fractured country.
This wasn’t a policy argument. It was a human one. And it was deeply vulnerable.
So what do we do with all of this? Stay quiet or speak out?
This is the tension we brought with us into The Whole Mind Game.
Shaler described the best of quiet as peace, reflection, clarity — a portal to the interior. The worst? A wall. Irresponsibility. Selfishness.
The best of speaking out felt liberating, brave, and responsible. Leadership that enables change. The worst? Ego. Vanity. Deafness. Talking without listening.
When we brought the best of both together, her synthesis landed on leadership. Mine, coming from a writing context, landed on without ego. Put them together, and we landed on something neither of us planned:
Leadership without ego.
On the shadow side, we explored what happens when quiet becomes selfish, and speaking becomes ego-driven. The phrase that grabbed me was loss of humanity — a barren landscape where no one listens, and everyone has a chosen side.
So what do we do with that?
For me, it’s a writing intention: Share what I know without ego.
For Shaler, it’s local leadership: Listen first. Talk to the person at the park. Practice being a better listener in everyday life.
Small corrections. Not dramatic swings. A steadier course.
We’re living in a time when silence can feel complicit, and speech can feel performative. The tension between quiet and speaking out isn’t going away.
This episode doesn’t try to solve polarization. It does something more practical. It slows down to examine intention.
Whole Mind Thinking doesn’t ask us to agree. It invites us to engage tension differently. Instead of choosing sides by reflex, we explore the strengths and shadows of both. We create space for something more integrated to emerge.
That’s a different way to approach compromise. Not a rushed meeting in the middle. Not a diluted split of the difference. But a disciplined search for balance that respects what each side is protecting.
It’s a practice. And like any practice, it becomes easier with repetition. What feels unnatural at first can become second nature. Play the game in low-stakes moments, and the muscle is there when the stakes are high.
If we want better leadership, better discourse, better citizenship, it may begin with two simple questions:
Am I listening well enough to lead?
Am I speaking up without ego?
Whole Mind Thinking adds a third:
Can I hold both perspectives clearly enough to discover a wiser path forward?
If that resonates with you, this conversation is worth your time.
👉 Press play:
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0:00–12:00 — Theater, the Statue of Liberty, and shaping national stories
29:00–38:00 — Shaler reads “I’m an American Worn Weary by Rancor”
1:11:00–End — The Whole Mind Game: Quiet vs Speak Out
If you listen to only one section, make it 29:00–38:00. The essay reading sets the emotional tone for everything that follows.
Thank you to Shaler McClure Wright for her honesty and vulnerability.
If this episode resonated, please consider sharing it with someone who’s trying to stay engaged without losing their humanity.
Your listening, sharing, and feedback are what allow this work to grow.