thanks so much there is no joy no sorrow
no victory no defeat that you have
experienced that has not been
experienced by literally billions of
human beings before you the birth of the
child this is my child happiest day in
my life the loss of a loved one winning
a race coming in last hitting a peak a
sudden setback we as feeling thinking
creatures know what joy is we know what
happiness is and we know pain and we
know loss and we know on the spectrum
which state of being is optimal so why I
wonder why do we so often choose what is
not optimal why do we choose to inflict
it on others on ourselves on our
environment is it deliberate is it
politically motivated is it
philosophically motivated do we even
know in the moment what we are doing and
what the consequences are Marcel Proust
wrote in in search of lost time it is
always thus impelled by a state of mind
which is destined not to last that we
the crisis of addiction the profound
crisis of gun violence in our society
our disregard for nature the wrong way
we communicate with each other and this
as a communicator is what I would like
to talk to you about today in this world
of instant news and social media we all
know how much can go wrong and I think
it’s crucial for those who are at the
center of the storm as for instance our
political leaders are to know exactly
the right thing to say and to know
precisely what not to say and when to be
silenced so I think it’s interesting
that in so many cases those who would
invite themselves into our conversations
either through political discourse or
social media in general would choose to
say things that in a polite society
would be considered utterly unacceptable
under the cloak of authenticity some
would say this is a rebellion against
political correctness this is a
rebellion against the thought police but
to challenge the now politically correct
value of being politically incorrect I
wonder if it’s something else
are we too impatient to pause and choose
our words are we too lazy to make the
effort or is it something else are we
heading down a road to no return where
we have lost the capacity as a society
to engage each other with kindness and
respect ask yourself how much
unvarnished authenticity
how much unvarnished raw honesty are you
willing to take and at the heart of all
the late author Ursula Le Guin said this
words are events they do things they
change things they transform both
speaker and hearer they feed energy back
and forth and amplify it
they feed understanding or emotion back
and forth and amplify it and there are
all kinds of really fun exercises that
show this this is one punctuation saves
lives the difference between let’s eat
grandma as opposed to let’s eat comma
grandma but this I think is my favorite
exercise taking this course sentence
insert the word only anywhere in the
sentence and see how it changes the
meaning so the core says it says she
told him that she loved him she only
told him that she loved him she told him
that she loved only him the truth is the
most widely read books the most ancient
civilization reflect the value of the
polish self and as you know museums are
filled with the evidence of human desire
over thousands of years to project
beauty and to project strength the most
popular philosophical and religious
treatises of all times are filled with
stories of positive human striving so
why I wonder why do we choose to bring
the raw version of ourselves instead of
bringing the most thoughtless version of
ourselves the most unfinished version of
ourselves why not bring the best version
of ourselves because the truth is
civilization at one time prized the
aesthetic value of self presentation the
it is a goal that reflects intention and
mirrors today’s mindfulness movement and
it’s sibling do no harm which calls upon
us to consider social biological the
environmental impact of our actions and
our words I’d like to say here that this
picture which i think is so gorgeous was
taken by a friend of mine award-winning
British wildlife photographer George
soil as are some of the coming pictures
and this is something that I think is so
gorgeous when people share their view of
the world through their eyes and I’m so
appreciative of this but can we say the
do no harm is an adequate approach is it
enough because it really is an approach
that says look we can only do so much so
let’s just not make matters worse when
the truth is our society our
civilization is in crisis and it calls
upon us to take action to repair what’s
been broken what’s been lost in terms of
civility in terms of harmony and
certainly in terms of the environment so
to an encouraging degree there are
restoration efforts of all kinds around
the world and I think that besides being
an absolute goal in and of itself
environmental restoration is a great
metaphor for the restoration of our
civil environment so I would like to
the oyster which goes beyond its call of
simple existence and it’s called to do
no harm to actually doing profound good
from the Pacific Northwest to the coast
of Maine to the Chesapeake Bay and to
European waters this humble bivalve is
it the center of efforts not just to
hold the line on environmental
degradation but to actually lift marina
environments and restore them to their
quality and to their beauty on this
quiet strip of beach in the Scottish
Highlands between the glenmorangie
distillery and the North Sea a
collaboration is underway among
scientists business and conservationists
to restore this European marine
sanctuary the Dornoch Firth to its
pre-industrial state of health through a
combination of 21st century technology
and the restoration of a long gone
moisture reef four million deep you know
I think that there is a synchronicity to
our lives and to our work and I believe
that there is a symmetry to our lives
and to our world and so I really believe
that we as human beings and be like the
oyster in our society we can be that
breath of oxygen we can bring that
energy this is an approach that was
embraced by the late Pope John Paul the
second and I believe that it speaks to
what I think is the road before us this
thought paraphrased by this author every
day of our lives is lived in the
dramatic tension between who we are and
we have the ability to apply ourselves
to the challenges ahead of us to use our
muscle our oxygen our kindness to bring
us back to a place where words were not
meant to bruise but words were meant to
build to heal to be positive to restore
our communication to values of clarity
elegance discretion consideration and
empathy thank you [Applause]