most TED talks are about changing the
world this is about doing something that
might be even harder not changing the
world a few years ago I had what I
described as a midlife crisis meets a
mid-career opportunity I turned 50 I
took a sabbatical from my job as a
newspaper columnist and I spent a year
in our national parks before beginning
that year I went to Walpole New
Hampshire and met with Dayton Duncan
Dayton is Ken Burns longtime
collaborator and friend it was Dayton’s
idea to make America’s best idea about
our national parks a documentary Dayton
told me a story about when he and Ken
first became friends and they realized
one of the things they had in common was
their favorite film It’s a Wonderful
Life when they were making America’s
best idea they talked about how it’s
wonderful life could apply to our
national parks in the movie George
Bailey gets his wish and he never was
born which means that he wasn’t there to
save his brother and charming Bedford
Falls becomes Pottersville and so on
what if they said our national parks had
never been created what would the rim of
you it would be lined with trophy homes
and URI unless we owned one of those
homes or knew somebody who did would
never get to stand there in that spot
and experience that glorious view
Yosemite Valley would be a gated
community with 18 hole golf course par-3
backing up to Half Dome the Everglades
would be shopping malls and subdivisions
Yellowstone would be geyser world I
thought about that a lot during the year
I had in the parks that the National
Park Service was about to turn 100 and
celebrate its centennial and I was
fortunate enough to win this fellowship
that allowed me to pursue basically a
dream assignment spend a year in the
parks and try and answer one question
what is the future of the parks what is
the next 100 years hold I had a plan I
was going to go to 12 parks one a month
each one symbolizing a different issue
for the future I started the year
January 1 atop Cadillac Mountain in
Acadia
in Maine with the first sunrise of
another year in America from there I
tropical waters off the Florida Keys in
a desert in Arizona partly because this
desert is home to the saguaro cactus
partly because it was home to my mom my
love of the national parks can be traced
very easily to my mom and dad this is
this is one of my favorite photos of
them I’m not exactly sure when or where
it was taken but they look young and
relaxed so I think it was before me a
nerdy kid who could get excited about a
book about rocks and then along came two
little sisters I’m not sure how my
parents had the will or patience to pile
three kids into a station wagon with no
air conditioning no radio my sisters and
I fighting in the back seat over the
space
and drive across country I know it
wasn’t always easy my dad was a Baptist
minister but when he was setting up this
pop-up camper he would curse like the
father and a Christmas story fighting
with the furnace they didn’t have a lot
of money but I realize now what they
gave us with those trips I I don’t
remember what I got for Christmas when I
was 9 years old but I remember vividly a
trip to the redwoods that year I can
still picture the campsite I can see the
world’s tallest trees some of them 2,000
years old the stunning night skies the
sound lying in my pup tent of the wind
and the trees and the smell of that
ancient forest in the morning mixed with
the smell of my dad cooking pancakes for
breakfast so when I turned 50 and my
family asked how I wanted to celebrate I
said I want to go camping like I did
when I was a kid when I was my belt my
daughter’s age I wanted her to
experience that and so we did we didn’t
exactly turn back the clock to my
childhood we flew to California we got a
rental car that had air conditioning and
satellite radio but when we when we got
to the redwoods and roll down the
windows it just the smell of the place
took me back decades and so did seeing
my mom read to her four grandkids the
way I know she read to me and my two
sisters she found a favorite children’s
book in the gift shop bought copies for
each of the kids and then in the
campsite read it aloud to them everybody
needs a rock I’m sorry for kids who
don’t have a rock for a friend I’m sorry
for kids you only have tricycles
bicycles horses elephants goldfish three
room playhouses fire engines wind-up
dragons and things like that
like a lot of things in life like that
childhood trip I didn’t truly appreciate
this trip or this moment until later few
weeks into the next year a few weeks
after that first sunrise in Acadia a
doctor told my mom she was dying that
she had an inoperable cancer and that
at first this made this year this
project traveling in the national park
seemed meaningless the more I thought
about the more I talked to mom who loved
the national parks who volunteered at
swaro National Park hood traveled to
about a hundred national parks it made
it feel even more meaningful she wanted
me to stick with the plan so I did and
in June I was in Yellowstone the world’s
first national park
my wife Toni and daughter Mia were able
to make that trip with me we had only
been there a few hours and Mia was upset
about something she was stomping down a
path I think parents can probably relate
to childhood meltdowns and I was behind
her trying to think of something to say
to calm her down by the time I caught up
to her something had already changed her
mood she was smiling remember that book
Nana read to us she said and she held
out her hand and showed me something a
rock I suppose this is where I’m
supposed to say I gave her a lecture I
said you know we don’t we don’t take
anything from a national park if
everybody did that
even something small it’s gonna change
the place but I didn’t say that I just
said that’s a very nice Rock and I’m
sure Nana would be very happy that you
remember this story when people ask me
what’s your favorite national park I
always say I can’t pick one it changes
it’s partly about the beauty and partly
about the personal connection I think it
is for everybody it’s like that so maybe
it’s redwood maybe it’s Grand Canyon
maybe it’s right here in our backyard
Timah Quan but at that moment in time it
probably was Yellowstone and not just
because of the Bison and geysers but
because of my daughter and a rock while
I was in Yellowstone I got a call from
my sister and she said instead of flying
back to Jacksonville
I think you better come straight to
Tucson to Mom’s house my mom the same
woman who months earlier had been
climbing the mountains in her backyard
was now confined to a hospital bed we
moved the bed near a big window so she
could at least see those mountains but
after a few days she wasn’t even opening
her eyes so she loved to read my so my
sisters started reading to her
everything from the number one ladies
detective agency to the Bible eventually
I decided I should take a turn so I
looked at her bookshelf and pulled
something down and started to read aloud
when my dad died in 1996 he would sudden
I remember wondering which is harder to
lose a loved one quickly or to watch
their body slowly shut down I still
don’t know I just know that when my mom
took her last breath shortly before
another beautiful sunrise in that desert
it made me think everybody needs a rock
even adults and not just a metaphorical
rock like faith through friends those
are certainly useful but there’s
that year that I began January 1 atop
Cadillac Mountain standing on the pink
granite there I ended December 31st with
the sunset atop Haleakala in Hawaii and
the volcanic rock there in between there
lots of rocks a granite half dome in
Yosemite the mile deep walls of the
Grand Canyon layers upon layers of rock
charting billions of years a 17-ton
Boulder in a Pennsylvania field marking
the spot where a plane crashed on
September 11th a small red stone in the
rainforests of Olympic National Park
marking what has been described is one
of the last quiet places on earth these
are places of Solace places that to go
disconnect and reconnect with what truly
matters not not just for me during that
year for millions of people every year
for us as a nation we need places like
this more than ever and more than ever
places like this are under attack I
could give you a long list of the
threats everything from rising seas just
shrinking budgets it’s tempting
very tempting to point at politicians
some who seem to have little or no
connection to our parks some who seem
hell-bent on dismantling environmental
protections and in opening up public
lands to private development but the
biggest threat isn’t them it’s us those
of us who say we love the parks and not
the age-old are we loving them to death
are we loving them enough to keep them
alive when I began that year I thought
that whenever America created a National
Park at that moment in time we
did it forever locked it up and threw
away the key I now realize that is
something that has to happen again and
again
day after day generation after
generation most TED talks end with
someone
explaining how they hope you will help
them change the world I’m hoping like
George Bailey at the end of its a
Wonderful Life you’ll appreciate what
you have what we all have and fight to
protect it and pass it on to the next
generation the small town where I grew
up has changed if I took my daughter
back there I’d have to say this is what
used to be over here this is what used
to be over there but if I take her to
the redwoods she can smell some of the
same smells as she hikes some of the
same trails playing some of the same
tidepools hug some of the same trees
maybe even find her rock I’m hoping that
in another hundred years our children’s
children will be able to go the rim of
the Grand Canyon and see the view that
view without the trophy home that made
Teddy Roosevelt say leave it as it is
that they’ll be able to go to Olympic
National Park and hear that quiet if
they’ll go to Big Bend and see the stars
and that they’ll be able to follow the
Sun from Maine to Hawaii and along the
way find a rock [Applause]
world this is about doing something that
might be even harder not changing the
world a few years ago I had what I
described as a midlife crisis meets a
mid-career opportunity I turned 50 I
took a sabbatical from my job as a
newspaper columnist and I spent a year
in our national parks before beginning
that year I went to Walpole New
Hampshire and met with Dayton Duncan
Dayton is Ken Burns longtime
collaborator and friend it was Dayton’s
idea to make America’s best idea about
our national parks a documentary Dayton
told me a story about when he and Ken
first became friends and they realized
one of the things they had in common was
their favorite film It’s a Wonderful
Life when they were making America’s
best idea they talked about how it’s
wonderful life could apply to our
national parks in the movie George
Bailey gets his wish and he never was
born which means that he wasn’t there to
save his brother and charming Bedford
Falls becomes Pottersville and so on
what if they said our national parks had
never been created what would the rim of
you it would be lined with trophy homes
and URI unless we owned one of those
homes or knew somebody who did would
never get to stand there in that spot
and experience that glorious view
Yosemite Valley would be a gated
community with 18 hole golf course par-3
backing up to Half Dome the Everglades
would be shopping malls and subdivisions
Yellowstone would be geyser world I
thought about that a lot during the year
I had in the parks that the National
Park Service was about to turn 100 and
celebrate its centennial and I was
fortunate enough to win this fellowship
that allowed me to pursue basically a
dream assignment spend a year in the
parks and try and answer one question
what is the future of the parks what is
the next 100 years hold I had a plan I
was going to go to 12 parks one a month
each one symbolizing a different issue
for the future I started the year
January 1 atop Cadillac Mountain in
Acadia
in Maine with the first sunrise of
another year in America from there I
tropical waters off the Florida Keys in
a desert in Arizona partly because this
desert is home to the saguaro cactus
partly because it was home to my mom my
love of the national parks can be traced
very easily to my mom and dad this is
this is one of my favorite photos of
them I’m not exactly sure when or where
it was taken but they look young and
relaxed so I think it was before me a
nerdy kid who could get excited about a
book about rocks and then along came two
little sisters I’m not sure how my
parents had the will or patience to pile
three kids into a station wagon with no
air conditioning no radio my sisters and
I fighting in the back seat over the
space
and drive across country I know it
wasn’t always easy my dad was a Baptist
minister but when he was setting up this
pop-up camper he would curse like the
father and a Christmas story fighting
with the furnace they didn’t have a lot
of money but I realize now what they
gave us with those trips I I don’t
remember what I got for Christmas when I
was 9 years old but I remember vividly a
trip to the redwoods that year I can
still picture the campsite I can see the
world’s tallest trees some of them 2,000
years old the stunning night skies the
sound lying in my pup tent of the wind
and the trees and the smell of that
ancient forest in the morning mixed with
the smell of my dad cooking pancakes for
breakfast so when I turned 50 and my
family asked how I wanted to celebrate I
said I want to go camping like I did
when I was a kid when I was my belt my
daughter’s age I wanted her to
experience that and so we did we didn’t
exactly turn back the clock to my
childhood we flew to California we got a
rental car that had air conditioning and
satellite radio but when we when we got
to the redwoods and roll down the
windows it just the smell of the place
took me back decades and so did seeing
my mom read to her four grandkids the
way I know she read to me and my two
sisters she found a favorite children’s
book in the gift shop bought copies for
each of the kids and then in the
campsite read it aloud to them everybody
needs a rock I’m sorry for kids who
don’t have a rock for a friend I’m sorry
for kids you only have tricycles
bicycles horses elephants goldfish three
room playhouses fire engines wind-up
dragons and things like that
like a lot of things in life like that
childhood trip I didn’t truly appreciate
this trip or this moment until later few
weeks into the next year a few weeks
after that first sunrise in Acadia a
doctor told my mom she was dying that
she had an inoperable cancer and that
at first this made this year this
project traveling in the national park
seemed meaningless the more I thought
about the more I talked to mom who loved
the national parks who volunteered at
swaro National Park hood traveled to
about a hundred national parks it made
it feel even more meaningful she wanted
me to stick with the plan so I did and
in June I was in Yellowstone the world’s
first national park
my wife Toni and daughter Mia were able
to make that trip with me we had only
been there a few hours and Mia was upset
about something she was stomping down a
path I think parents can probably relate
to childhood meltdowns and I was behind
her trying to think of something to say
to calm her down by the time I caught up
to her something had already changed her
mood she was smiling remember that book
Nana read to us she said and she held
out her hand and showed me something a
rock I suppose this is where I’m
supposed to say I gave her a lecture I
said you know we don’t we don’t take
anything from a national park if
everybody did that
even something small it’s gonna change
the place but I didn’t say that I just
said that’s a very nice Rock and I’m
sure Nana would be very happy that you
remember this story when people ask me
what’s your favorite national park I
always say I can’t pick one it changes
it’s partly about the beauty and partly
about the personal connection I think it
is for everybody it’s like that so maybe
it’s redwood maybe it’s Grand Canyon
maybe it’s right here in our backyard
Timah Quan but at that moment in time it
probably was Yellowstone and not just
because of the Bison and geysers but
because of my daughter and a rock while
I was in Yellowstone I got a call from
my sister and she said instead of flying
back to Jacksonville
I think you better come straight to
Tucson to Mom’s house my mom the same
woman who months earlier had been
climbing the mountains in her backyard
was now confined to a hospital bed we
moved the bed near a big window so she
could at least see those mountains but
after a few days she wasn’t even opening
her eyes so she loved to read my so my
sisters started reading to her
everything from the number one ladies
detective agency to the Bible eventually
I decided I should take a turn so I
looked at her bookshelf and pulled
something down and started to read aloud
when my dad died in 1996 he would sudden
I remember wondering which is harder to
lose a loved one quickly or to watch
their body slowly shut down I still
don’t know I just know that when my mom
took her last breath shortly before
another beautiful sunrise in that desert
it made me think everybody needs a rock
even adults and not just a metaphorical
rock like faith through friends those
are certainly useful but there’s
that year that I began January 1 atop
Cadillac Mountain standing on the pink
granite there I ended December 31st with
the sunset atop Haleakala in Hawaii and
the volcanic rock there in between there
lots of rocks a granite half dome in
Yosemite the mile deep walls of the
Grand Canyon layers upon layers of rock
charting billions of years a 17-ton
Boulder in a Pennsylvania field marking
the spot where a plane crashed on
September 11th a small red stone in the
rainforests of Olympic National Park
marking what has been described is one
of the last quiet places on earth these
are places of Solace places that to go
disconnect and reconnect with what truly
matters not not just for me during that
year for millions of people every year
for us as a nation we need places like
this more than ever and more than ever
places like this are under attack I
could give you a long list of the
threats everything from rising seas just
shrinking budgets it’s tempting
very tempting to point at politicians
some who seem to have little or no
connection to our parks some who seem
hell-bent on dismantling environmental
protections and in opening up public
lands to private development but the
biggest threat isn’t them it’s us those
of us who say we love the parks and not
the age-old are we loving them to death
are we loving them enough to keep them
alive when I began that year I thought
that whenever America created a National
Park at that moment in time we
did it forever locked it up and threw
away the key I now realize that is
something that has to happen again and
again
day after day generation after
generation most TED talks end with
someone
explaining how they hope you will help
them change the world I’m hoping like
George Bailey at the end of its a
Wonderful Life you’ll appreciate what
you have what we all have and fight to
protect it and pass it on to the next
generation the small town where I grew
up has changed if I took my daughter
back there I’d have to say this is what
used to be over here this is what used
to be over there but if I take her to
the redwoods she can smell some of the
same smells as she hikes some of the
same trails playing some of the same
tidepools hug some of the same trees
maybe even find her rock I’m hoping that
in another hundred years our children’s
children will be able to go the rim of
the Grand Canyon and see the view that
view without the trophy home that made
Teddy Roosevelt say leave it as it is
that they’ll be able to go to Olympic
National Park and hear that quiet if
they’ll go to Big Bend and see the stars
and that they’ll be able to follow the
Sun from Maine to Hawaii and along the
way find a rock [Applause]
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