Will Bowen - A Complaint Free World

Reproduced with permission of the Kansas City Star copyright 2007 The Kansas City Star. All rights reserved. Format differs from original publication. Not an endorsement.

A Complaint Free Worlds vision is to share Complaint Free bracelets with sixty million people1 percent of the worlds population. If we can positively transform the attitudes of just 1 percent of our worlds people, it will have a ripple effect, raising the consciousness of everyone.

As of this writing we are over ten million bracelets.

The power of calling something into reality by focusing single-mindedly on it was demonstrated in my own life as we approached the six-millionth-bracelet milestone. The Board of Directors for A Complaint Free World wanted to present the six millionth bracelet to someone who inspired us, someone whose words and example typified Complaint Free living. After a brief discussion, the choice was obvious and unanimousDr.Maya Angelou, former United States Poet Laureate and mentor to Oprah Winfrey.

When we first began A Complaint Free World, we adopted Dr. Angelous quote If you dont like something change it. If you cant change it, change your attitude. Dont complain as our motto.

Complaining lets a bully know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

MAYA ANGELOU

The challenge was that none of us knew Dr. Angelou. We began to do some research and found that many authors and nonprofits had attempted to connect with her with no luck. Speaking to publishers and agents got us nowhere.

At this point we could have given up or at least begun to consider other options. But we refused to be dissuaded. Rather, I began to tell people I was going to personally present the six millionth Complaint Free bracelet to Dr. Maya Angelou. Many asked, How do you know her? To which I responded, honestly, I dont.

Then how are you going to meet with her to give her the bracelet?

Again, I spoke the truth, I have no idea. But its going to happen.

Whenever I had a free moment, I imagined meeting Dr. Angelou. I had seen her on television when she read her poem

On the Pulse of Morning at President Clintons 1993 inauguration. I knew she was a mentor to Oprah Winfrey. I knew she was a famous author and educator, but I did not know her, nor did I know anyone who knew her. Nonetheless, whenever people asked how A Complaint Free World was progressing, I enthusiastically told them that we were approaching 10 percent of our sixty-million-bracelet goal and that I was going to present the six millionth bracelet to Maya Angelou.

At a conference, I bumped into an old friend and told her my intention. She did not inquire as to how I knew Dr. Angelou. She did not ask how I intended to make this happen. Rather, she smiled as she started to walk away and said simply, Tell her I said hello.

I snapped my head around and nearly shouted, You know Dr. Angelou?

I used to book her when she came into town to speak. Ive stayed in touch with her niece, she said.

I then poured out my story of trying to reach Dr. Angelou and how we had hit walls with every attempt.

I cant promise anything, she said, but Ill see what I can do.

As youll see, not only did I meet Dr. Angelou, but I enjoyed a pleasant afternoon speaking with her in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

How did this happen?

Who cares!

We simply made a decision that seemed far beyond our capacity to realize, and yet because we would not let the idea go, because we saw this as a done deala fait accompliit came to pass.

I not only held the vision of meeting Dr. Angelou and getting to honor her with the six millionth bracelet, I put this energy out into the world by telling other people that this wasnot might, wasgoing to happen.

When I met Dr. Angelou at her home in Winston-Salem, we discussed the vision of A Complaint Free World. I told her that the bracelet we presented her symbolized our being, at that time, 10 percent of the way to our goal and then asked how she thought the world might be different when we reach our goal of sixty million. She said,

How do I think the world would be, if 1 percent of the worlds population was Complaint Free?

Einstein said, No genius has ever used more than 18 percent of the brain. But todays scientists say no genius has ever used more than 10 percent of the brain. The majority of us mumble and get along with 5, 6, or 7 percent.

If weve been able to stay alive at all, alive and future thinking, alive and having enough courage to care for each other, enough courage to love, imagine who we would be if 1 percent of six billion people were Complaint Free.

What would happen?

I tell you one thing, I think war would be laughed out of the room. I think the very word war.

If someone said, War? You mean Im supposed to kill somebody simply because he doesnt agree with me? Hah! I dont think so!

Just imagine, people would speak more kindly to each other. Courtesy would be invited back into the living room, and to the bedroom and to the childrens room and into the kitchen.

If 1 percent of our world was Complaint Free, we would care more about the children and realize that every child is our child; the black one and the white one, the pretty one and the plain one, the Asian and Muslim, the Japanese and the Jewisheveryone is our child.

If we were just 1 percent Complaint Free, we would stop blaming others for our mistakes and hating them because, in our minds, they caused the mistake.

Just imagine if we laughed more frequently, if we had the unmitigated courage to touch each other, it would be just the beginning of paradisenow