Wizard of Oz the main character a girl
named Dorothy gets swept up by the
cyclone
and as she flies through the air she
lands in the world of Oz she kills the
Wicked Witch during her landing and she
received his powerful red shoes as a
reward even though she’s fascinated but
it’s new and colorful worlds he arrived
in she has only one goal and that is to
return home
spoiler alert at the end she is told
that she can by simply closing her eyes
and clicking her heels three times while
repeating there is no place like home
what we can learn from her adventures is
that it takes four attributes to get you
home
brains heart courage and red shoes
fortunately all of us here are blessed
with brains heart and the guts for
courage so the real question here is do
you have red shoes and if not how do you
get home this girl her name is Ikki he
up until the age of three and health she
lived with her Korean mother and
siblings it was also around that age
that she was brought to an orphanage
where she waited for adoption
now imagine one day you get to wear this
fancy dress
and these beautiful red shiny shoes and
you step into this machine and if the
machine flies you through the air and
when you get out the people in that
world speak gibberish and they have big
blue eyes and big noses have funny hair
and they drive cars and they live in
brick houses and they’ve got this big
dog living inside the house as a pad and
they have a garden with a slide and a
swing and the sandbox and a piano and a
bird and a cage and cookies delicious
cookies and an antique doll that you’re
not allowed to touch so all these new
experiences and impressions in one day
were exciting and overwhelming so by the
end of the day key he was exhausted and
ready to go home but she didn’t she
stayed that night and the next day in
fact she stayed all following nights and
days who of you has ever been in a
situation like Dorothea and Kiki where
you wished you could go home by simply
three clicks of your heels right yes I
know I’ve been in those situations and
one that I would like to share with you
was in September 2006 that’s when we
moved from the Netherlands to Korea now
the first two years were filled with all
these new experiences and impressions
that were both exciting and overwhelming
so by the end of those two years I was
ready to go home but I didn’t I stayed
and not a year and another one and
another one and I’m still here eleven
years later and that is also exactly the
time that it has taken me to discover
the power
of my red shoes and how they can bring
you home the thing is that in order to
return home you first have to be taken
away from it for me I had to be in a
place where I felt anything but home and
that was in Korea if any of you like me
experience being taken away from your
home the reason why it’s because it’s
the most effective way to discover it at
home is not a place or a country or
people out here home is a place within
ourselves the place within where I
learned to fully trust myself or I
should say my selves because within all
of us there is this whole community
waiting to be discovered
to be listened to to be seen to be known
and to be accepted and loved just like
Dorothy needed the brains the Scarecrow
heart Tin Man and cur it’s the lion to
bring her home her community so do we
all need that community to bring us home
and red shoes so the good news for all
of us here especially the men you don’t
have to go out to buy shiny red shoes
in order to get connected to your inner
community the red shoes as you I’m sure
you figured out by now symbolizes our
ability to connect and integrate how to
practice that ability is through kind
and compassionate conversations with
yourself first that’s how you integrate
your inner community courage heart and
brains
when you build a timeline of your life
you can see and understand how every
experience has made you become the
person you are today and to love that
person and to trust that person and to
know that who you are is exactly who you
are meant to be it’s in the wholeness of
becoming that we come home there is this
concern that we are raising a
disconnected generation because of
devices and social media I don’t think
that the disconnect in people is because
of those things I think it is thanks to
devices and social media that the
disconnect in us as individuals and
community has become so visible we are
not more disconnected we are however
required to challenge and grow our
ability to connect we live in an amazing
time of abundance and opportunities and
to make the next level of growth
possible makes the need for
collaboration integration and
relationship more urgent in a world of
disconnect let’s create environments
that are safe and inviting for people to
share their life experiences we all have
holes of disconnect in our stories holes
that we keep falling into unless we
recognize and acknowledge those holes
and fill them make time to connect
yourself with your experiences so you
can help others to connect with theirs
that’s how we build
beautiful relationships of trust and
communities that are collaborative
integrated and creative the we as in
communities fill the holes in our story
making us whole again whether you are a
parent teacher leader when you are
invested in unlocking people’s potential
the key is in kind and compassionate
conversations it’s in the willingness to
deeply understand yourself and others
that you will find your red shoes that
connects you and brings you home when I
was preparing these presentation slides
my nine-year-old son saw this picture of
Kiki laying on the floor with her red
shoes so he asked me is this girl your
friend and I said yes she is and then he
wanted to know do you still have contact
with her and I answered yes better than
Kiki or Kiki as most people know her by
has got herself some new pair of red
shoes and with these red shoes I can
Vons of Agnew main open open of dictum
it been all dieters let me translate the
strippers for you because this time
whether my eyes are open or closed I’m
always home thank you [Applause]