Yes, it was me. I stood up in the first twenty minutes of Derren Brown’s #Miracle Show last night and shouted “Derren, stop!”Funnily enough, my voice carried throughout the entire theatre and Derren did indeed stop his show straight away. A young man was unwell – he was sat in the back row, and needed attention, urgently. Several rows were on their feet, trying to give space to the medics in the audience who were clambering to get to him.
Within a few minutes, he was on his feet and helped out of the theatre. I don’t know what happened next. I don’t know how he is now – I very much hope he’s ok. After a few anxious minutes, Derren came back on stage, picked up and carried on. The thing is, I’m writing about it today not just because I want to document the fact that I did it. I want to document the fact that it’s given me some much needed clarity on the fact that there are some times in our lives when we just have to stand up and say “Stop”.
Thinking large scale, the first person who comes to mind – as someone who is shouting “Stop” is my friend Tanya Barrow has done some amazing work in raising awareness of the issues happening right now via #BarefootAndCoatless. Another friend, is doing great work raising awareness of the fact that Type I Diabetes doesn’t come from eating too much cake.
Thinking small scale – quite literally in my own home and life, I now appreciate that I’ve taken the decision to “Stop” getting into things with other people – we can’t expect to like or connect everyone we meet and vice versa. We can’t expect to share the same views as everyone else and them with us. It’s ok for me to choose to “Stop” being sad because people have a conversation and don’t include me in it. It’s ok for me to teach my boys to “Stop” friendships that aren’t working for either party. I can choose to “Stop” being in social situations with people who are racist, sexist or homophobic.
It’s the right thing for me to do. And interestingly, I don’t have to shout “Stop” either. I can just do it. Without words. I can just “Stop”.
I am lucky enough to have seen Derren Brown’s #Miracle Show twice now – Lovely Bloke bought us tickets to see it in London just after Christmas and I was astounded at how high I felt afterwards – for days – it was amazing. This morning, I don’t feel low per se – I just feel like I really want to “Stop” some things in their tracks, so right now, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going offline for the rest of the day, to “Stop” some things in their tracks.
I’ll leave you with a challenge. What can you “Stop”? What is in your life, your community, your world, that you want to “Stop”? Tell me in the comments because I’m confident that by teaming up together, we can probably “Stop” lots of things in the future…..
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