[Music]
operator one two five one five how may I
help you
one moment please while I find that
number long long ago in a galaxy far far
away people would call directory
assistance by dialling 4 1 1 in order to
find a phone number in 1980 I was a
directory assistance operator I would
help people who called me make
connections with other people I did this
to raise money for college and I learned
a lot of things we could only say 7
stock phrases if it got beyond that we
would be in trouble so I could say
things like what city please
or is that D as in David heavy stuff I
also learned two important lessons that
I carried out of that experience as an
operator I learned that when people
can’t see you they feel very comfortable
pretty much saying anything they want
anything especially in the middle of the
night and I also learned that oftentimes
they didn’t call for information they
called for conversation and that’s all
they wanted from me the second thing
that I learned as a directory assistance
operator was to really depend on my
imagination and I had a pretty vivid
imagination I would hear a voice I would
listen to the tone and I would take in
what they were asking me as an operator
and began to imagine what they might be
like and one of the criteria for my
imagination was are they normal or not
because being normal was very important
to me at the time I was 19 I was right
out of high school and I wanted to be
normal like this
this is my senior high school picture
this is what I looked like as a
directory assistance operator and being
normal was very very important to me I
idolized everything about being normal
so once in the middle of the night I
receive a call and my imagination begins
to run wild because there was nothing
normal about this phone call the moment
the man got on the phone I could tell he
was very distressed he was very anxious
the first thing he said was don’t hang
up no matter what you do don’t hang up
hear me out I wanted to hang up right
then and there but something in his
voice kind of got through to me and I
wanted to find out what was wrong I
wanted to find out if I could help him
but I also imagined what it must be like
for him to be calling me in the middle
of the night with a very strange request
he said in 1968 NASA succeeded in
landing a man on the moon and while that
man was there he installed a telephone
and this caller needed that number and
he really wanted that number inside I
just froze I thought this is the
craziest thing I have ever heard this is
not normal and I like normal very much
but I couldn’t answer him so I pulled
out one of my seven stock phrases
because something inside of me felt his
distress he knew I could reject him and
he knew he was not normal and he had
trusted me with his call so I pulled out
one of my seven stock phrases which
later I thought was kind of brilliant in
order to communicate with him I care
even though I can’t help you
but the moon is not in the seven one
three area code we met in a kind of
middle place because from the sound of
his voice I could imagine he was
relieved that I had not mocked or
ridiculed him I didn’t believe there was
a phone on the moon and I didn’t believe
he was normal but I believed in his
truth he believed it and I met him in
that space he accepted my answer because
I treated him professionally and not as
somebody who seemed troubled I was 19
and that one call as a directory
assistance operator actually shifted
something almost physical inside of me
it was a very powerful moment for me I
learned that my story and my truth is my
story and my truth but you and I live in
worlds that are filled with multiple
truths we live in a time of separation
and polarization we have enlightenment
principles that have given us our
constitutional government that’s one
truth we have empiricism and science
that’s another truth we have postmodern
realities we have all kinds of truth
relative and subjective in relationship
to one another think of it this way this
is how I often imagine it think of
looking through your lens the lens of
your phone and you want to take a
picture so you frame it and that frame
is all of your life experiences all of
your truth so for example when I was a
child a dog bit my ear and I needed two
stitches so now when I’m walking through
Lincoln Park and I see a dog I see a
threat that’s what I see through my lens
maybe one of you had the best dog in the
world who was your friend and was like
lassie and saved you from the well and
so when you see the exact same thing the
same dog you see your best friend
another way of looking at this is to use
the words from the post-modern for
for John Luke Mari owned he talks about
the relationship between our idols and
our icons now those are traditionally
religious symbols but Mari own takes it
far far beyond religion again think of
it this way an idol stands in front of
your lens and it demands your attention
you must feed it you must listen to it
it will tell you what is true and it
will tell you what is false and it will
tell you what is a threat and it will
even tell you what to hate and destroy
the opposite of this is an icon and we
use icons every single day if we use our
smartphone or a computer an icon takes
you to another place it doesn’t stand in
front of you it leads you somewhere else
you click on it and you end up somewhere
else an icon takes you to a new world a
new way of imagining the world let me
use as many of my fellow speakers have
done let me use a personal experience
that may help I serve for one year in
New Orleans in the st. Thomas housing
projects I was there as part of my
training to be a Vincentian priest and I
lived deep in the heart of poverty when
I went into that volunteer year I
dragged along with me an enormous Idol I
was gonna change the world I was gonna
save people from ignorance I was gonna
help people out of poverty I could have
been an Avenger that’s how I felt I was
gonna go in and just save the world my
job was working with sister Martha
Milner in an elementary school teaching
music sister Martha was a jazz trumpeter
from New Orleans and an amazing talent
during the year I was there two of the
children of our school were murdered by
having their throats slit because their
mother had failed in a drug drop sister
Martha arranged a march through the
projects she led us with her trumpet
playing a jazzy version of an old hymn
called the Lord
here’s the cry of the poor and all of us
from kindergarten through eighth grade
faculty and staff marched through st.
Thomas projects people hanging out on
their balconies on their porch and as we
sang they began to sing with us
there was an icon that blew my idol out
of the water I could not save these
people I could not save those children
however I could stand with them I could
stand with these people in their poverty
and I could stand with these people in
their pain and suffering that was an
icon that took me to a whole new place
after the March was over I submitted my
application to take final vows as a
Vincentian and the rest is here in
Easter of that year Monique and
Dominique asked me to be their Godfather
these were two children from our
neighborhood and their family was part
of our little community and they invited
me again into their world not because I
could save not because I could do
anything other than love them and listen
to them and see the world as they saw
the world an extraordinary experience
that completely rocked all of my idols
so when I think of icons and idols
I think of icons as a window through
which I can see a new world a reimagined
world when I was in New Orleans I was
changed by those people because they
told me their story and they let me walk
through the icon into their life even
that bizarre and strange moon collar it
was the first time in my life that I
actually saw somebody else’s reality
that was not my own and I couldn’t
exactly understand it but I could listen
to it this is me doing a thrill rub
compression on the floor of a church I’m
lying on the floor of the church with my
arms open wide as I say yes to the
possibility of what icons will I
encounter as I move forward
me who idolized being normal
picked probably one of the most abnormal
ways of life anyone ever came up with
just ask my family so I think back to
that strange and odd moon caller that’s
where it all started I did not believe
in his truth but I listened closely to
his truth all of us all of us are icons
every one of us has a story every one of
us has the capacity to taking somebody
somewhere else please stand in your
truth please stand in your truth and
also listen closely to the truth of
others this is how we reimagine
communication and such a polarized
bizarre and divisive time we can replace
our idols with the beauty of the icons
that each of us is thank you [Applause]
operator one two five one five how may I
help you
one moment please while I find that
number long long ago in a galaxy far far
away people would call directory
assistance by dialling 4 1 1 in order to
find a phone number in 1980 I was a
directory assistance operator I would
help people who called me make
connections with other people I did this
to raise money for college and I learned
a lot of things we could only say 7
stock phrases if it got beyond that we
would be in trouble so I could say
things like what city please
or is that D as in David heavy stuff I
also learned two important lessons that
I carried out of that experience as an
operator I learned that when people
can’t see you they feel very comfortable
pretty much saying anything they want
anything especially in the middle of the
night and I also learned that oftentimes
they didn’t call for information they
called for conversation and that’s all
they wanted from me the second thing
that I learned as a directory assistance
operator was to really depend on my
imagination and I had a pretty vivid
imagination I would hear a voice I would
listen to the tone and I would take in
what they were asking me as an operator
and began to imagine what they might be
like and one of the criteria for my
imagination was are they normal or not
because being normal was very important
to me at the time I was 19 I was right
out of high school and I wanted to be
normal like this
this is my senior high school picture
this is what I looked like as a
directory assistance operator and being
normal was very very important to me I
idolized everything about being normal
so once in the middle of the night I
receive a call and my imagination begins
to run wild because there was nothing
normal about this phone call the moment
the man got on the phone I could tell he
was very distressed he was very anxious
the first thing he said was don’t hang
up no matter what you do don’t hang up
hear me out I wanted to hang up right
then and there but something in his
voice kind of got through to me and I
wanted to find out what was wrong I
wanted to find out if I could help him
but I also imagined what it must be like
for him to be calling me in the middle
of the night with a very strange request
he said in 1968 NASA succeeded in
landing a man on the moon and while that
man was there he installed a telephone
and this caller needed that number and
he really wanted that number inside I
just froze I thought this is the
craziest thing I have ever heard this is
not normal and I like normal very much
but I couldn’t answer him so I pulled
out one of my seven stock phrases
because something inside of me felt his
distress he knew I could reject him and
he knew he was not normal and he had
trusted me with his call so I pulled out
one of my seven stock phrases which
later I thought was kind of brilliant in
order to communicate with him I care
even though I can’t help you
but the moon is not in the seven one
three area code we met in a kind of
middle place because from the sound of
his voice I could imagine he was
relieved that I had not mocked or
ridiculed him I didn’t believe there was
a phone on the moon and I didn’t believe
he was normal but I believed in his
truth he believed it and I met him in
that space he accepted my answer because
I treated him professionally and not as
somebody who seemed troubled I was 19
and that one call as a directory
assistance operator actually shifted
something almost physical inside of me
it was a very powerful moment for me I
learned that my story and my truth is my
story and my truth but you and I live in
worlds that are filled with multiple
truths we live in a time of separation
and polarization we have enlightenment
principles that have given us our
constitutional government that’s one
truth we have empiricism and science
that’s another truth we have postmodern
realities we have all kinds of truth
relative and subjective in relationship
to one another think of it this way this
is how I often imagine it think of
looking through your lens the lens of
your phone and you want to take a
picture so you frame it and that frame
is all of your life experiences all of
your truth so for example when I was a
child a dog bit my ear and I needed two
stitches so now when I’m walking through
Lincoln Park and I see a dog I see a
threat that’s what I see through my lens
maybe one of you had the best dog in the
world who was your friend and was like
lassie and saved you from the well and
so when you see the exact same thing the
same dog you see your best friend
another way of looking at this is to use
the words from the post-modern for
for John Luke Mari owned he talks about
the relationship between our idols and
our icons now those are traditionally
religious symbols but Mari own takes it
far far beyond religion again think of
it this way an idol stands in front of
your lens and it demands your attention
you must feed it you must listen to it
it will tell you what is true and it
will tell you what is false and it will
tell you what is a threat and it will
even tell you what to hate and destroy
the opposite of this is an icon and we
use icons every single day if we use our
smartphone or a computer an icon takes
you to another place it doesn’t stand in
front of you it leads you somewhere else
you click on it and you end up somewhere
else an icon takes you to a new world a
new way of imagining the world let me
use as many of my fellow speakers have
done let me use a personal experience
that may help I serve for one year in
New Orleans in the st. Thomas housing
projects I was there as part of my
training to be a Vincentian priest and I
lived deep in the heart of poverty when
I went into that volunteer year I
dragged along with me an enormous Idol I
was gonna change the world I was gonna
save people from ignorance I was gonna
help people out of poverty I could have
been an Avenger that’s how I felt I was
gonna go in and just save the world my
job was working with sister Martha
Milner in an elementary school teaching
music sister Martha was a jazz trumpeter
from New Orleans and an amazing talent
during the year I was there two of the
children of our school were murdered by
having their throats slit because their
mother had failed in a drug drop sister
Martha arranged a march through the
projects she led us with her trumpet
playing a jazzy version of an old hymn
called the Lord
here’s the cry of the poor and all of us
from kindergarten through eighth grade
faculty and staff marched through st.
Thomas projects people hanging out on
their balconies on their porch and as we
sang they began to sing with us
there was an icon that blew my idol out
of the water I could not save these
people I could not save those children
however I could stand with them I could
stand with these people in their poverty
and I could stand with these people in
their pain and suffering that was an
icon that took me to a whole new place
after the March was over I submitted my
application to take final vows as a
Vincentian and the rest is here in
Easter of that year Monique and
Dominique asked me to be their Godfather
these were two children from our
neighborhood and their family was part
of our little community and they invited
me again into their world not because I
could save not because I could do
anything other than love them and listen
to them and see the world as they saw
the world an extraordinary experience
that completely rocked all of my idols
so when I think of icons and idols
I think of icons as a window through
which I can see a new world a reimagined
world when I was in New Orleans I was
changed by those people because they
told me their story and they let me walk
through the icon into their life even
that bizarre and strange moon collar it
was the first time in my life that I
actually saw somebody else’s reality
that was not my own and I couldn’t
exactly understand it but I could listen
to it this is me doing a thrill rub
compression on the floor of a church I’m
lying on the floor of the church with my
arms open wide as I say yes to the
possibility of what icons will I
encounter as I move forward
me who idolized being normal
picked probably one of the most abnormal
ways of life anyone ever came up with
just ask my family so I think back to
that strange and odd moon caller that’s
where it all started I did not believe
in his truth but I listened closely to
his truth all of us all of us are icons
every one of us has a story every one of
us has the capacity to taking somebody
somewhere else please stand in your
truth please stand in your truth and
also listen closely to the truth of
others this is how we reimagine
communication and such a polarized
bizarre and divisive time we can replace
our idols with the beauty of the icons
that each of us is thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: