[Music]
where are you from everybody picture it
dredge up your past conjure the smells
and the laughs and the stories conjure
your best friend’s voice conjure sea
salt or oil fumes or birdsong give it a
name and allow me to ask how many words
does it take you if you can count the
number on your fingers raise your hand
more or less okay
think about everyone who just raised
their hand think about what you’ve just
done you’ve accomplished an
extraordinary act of synthesis
you’ve managed to sum up your entire
identity all of your memories every
tradition every cultural card that you
hold in a word or two or six everybody
who can’t everybody who is sitting there
brows furrowed murmuring softly awash in
a doubt as old as their lives raise your
hand
let’s see Italy
Puerto Rico Japan Sweden Germany nice
Chicago Ohio Portland Louisiana too many
what you did that active synthesis is
something that we the tribe of wanders
the tribe of people who can’t perform
that act have been trying and failing to
do our whole lives the idea of being
able to do that is something we find
both wonderful and terrifying you want
to know why think back to every time you
meet someone a whole new human being
that you need to at least attempt to
interact with replay the conversation in
your mind hello hi I’m John Smith Luca
Cesare Leopoldo Duvalier Vasquez
pleasure huh that’s an interesting name
where are you from
there it is folks I have the luxury as
still being a teenager
but I won’t be one forever sooner or
later I am going to leave home and when
I do I’m going to wander and I will have
to face that conversation every single
day why why is this such an important
question well look around observe the
words that characterize the TV screen
that we see every morning observe the
words that float across the mass media
in your pockets violence terrorism
racism
bigotry immigration crisis xenophobia
homophobia transphobia ego phobia phobia
phobia phobia fear people fear what they
do not know who they do not know as
American writer Orson Scott Card’s so
choice Lee puts it if the other fellow
can’t tell you his story you can never
be sure he isn’t trying to kill you it
sounds dramatic I know and hey maybe
it’s not oh is that extreme but
somewhere in every one of you there is a
voice the primal animal side
whispering stranger fear distrust
unknown danger to quiet that voice in
another person you must stop being the
stranger you must tell your story it’s
always been like that that this way for
humans and for hundreds of years it’s
worked except the world has changed
today we still leave home of course we
still wander but we no longer go to the
next town or the next Valley over no
nowadays we have the world on our
horizon and every person that uproots
their lives to cross an ocean becomes
suddenly part of an ever-growing tribe a
tribe of people who can’t quite tell
their stories in a handful of words if
you turn on your television and flip to
the news not 20 minutes go by that you
start hearing about an immigration
crisis immigration crisis said like that
all big and important and faceless it’s
daunting it’s terrifying so let’s break
it down
every one of those immigrants that your
TV is talking about could tell you of
two places a place from the past a place
they were and a place from the present
the place they are which makes two
simple right except say they meet
someone and fall in love with someone
that also knows to their children
wouldn’t know four and say one of those
children also meets someone like them
who knows four and they get married
their children well know eight and it
goes on like this cultural
multiplication doubling and tripling
across the generations until this world
is facing a very different kind of
crisis because how can you trust us if
we can’t tell you our stories and we
really can’t because we have no single
story to tell
rather we have too many as you can
probably tell this is something I’ve
thought about a lot and it’s a problem
that’s been persecuting us too strong a
word
it’s been following me around in the
back of my mind my whole life and when I
have a problem I cannot solve I turn to
the community around me and when I first
told my friends that I couldn’t really
figure out what home was for me they
gave me this funny look and they said
well where do you live
isn’t that home for you and of course I
live in Italy and so they were asking
Italian and they’re using the Italian
word Casa because in Italy house and
home are synonymous
the average Italian lives not far from
where they grew up and they feel their
cultural identity in their roots in
their family name in their genetics
right down to the level of a
neighborhood
I chose English for this talk
however partly because it’s my mother
tongue yes but partly because it bears
an important distinction a distinction I
grew up with there’s the house a
building a place nothing more a roof
four walls some ugly carpets maybe but
home home is different home is the place
you come but you can be yourself in home
as the dwelling of the soul well
researching this talk I discovered an
fact that I’d like to share with you
guys there existed in a few hundred
years ago possibly as part of Canada’s
first peoples a people called the Nootka
who lived on Vancouver Island and wanaka
traditionally lived in large plank
houses made of wood that could be
assembled somewhere and then maybe the
next day maybe the next months maybe the
next season when there was a storm or
when the animals moved somewhere else
they could be disassembled and moved
somewhere else for the Nootka and
because of this in the new calanque
home doesn’t exist as a noun but as a
verb one homes or a house occurs home as
something that’s here today gone
tomorrow is built into the language
itself that kind of impermanence that’s
something I couldn’t relate to a little
more but I can’t exactly deliver a
lecture on the linguistic patterns of
the Nootka people every time home comes
up in conversation can I think of when
you meet someone think of that
conversation you tell you ask where
you’re from you’re asking for a story
think about the language we use a moment
to describe stories we tell Mary yarns
we talk about story lines and plot holes
we talk about how character arcs tie
into each other we describe stories the
way we talk about fabric cloth and here
again the English language reaches its
limits because we’re so obsessed with
putting things in boxes we have a
washcloth for washing tablecloths for
eating on shirts and tunics for wearing
a word for everything every word with
its place
what about across the world I have
family in Japan and when my parents and
sister and I first visited we were
gifted furoshiki and what a furoshiki is
is a rectangular cloth it can be of any
color any size and any purpose and I
asked my obaasan my grandmother at the
time is this napkin washcloth is it a
garment and she smiled and she shook her
head and told me that it was a furoshiki
ah furoshiki has no set pattern no set
color no set size and neither does the
tapestry of a human life
so if we can apply this variability of
definition this flexibility to fabric
why not apply the same flexibility to a
human story to a human life
those are after all so much more complex
and valuable than cloth this isn’t the
first time I’ve given this talk I’ve
given it before in front of many many
people wiser than myself and each of
them has considered it carefully and
then looked at me and asked but well you
are from somewhere right back to the
question it’s a great question it really
is it’s full of history and human spirit
tradition culture the problem with it is
that we treat it as the end of a
conversation and not the beginning of
one where are you from where am i from
it’s a question that I’ve been asking
myself my whole life and today is the
day I stop looking because we have
something more interesting I have
something more interesting to give we
all do because here’s the thing when you
strike up a conversation when you meet
someone new you’re asking for a story
for a fiddle Shiki think of the
flexibility of a furoshiki we are born
with with a set of cultural cards in our
hand but those cards are given there
they just happen there from be given by
a destiny fate luck circumstance and
happenstance but they are not the
stories they are not our identities
they’re just places scenic background
cultural background of our lives
back to stories think about stories as
well you read them for the ending you
read them to know what happens you don’t
buy a book to look at its cover you buy
it to know what happens along the
journey to know what happens at the end
since we were little they’ve always told
us don’t judge a book by it’s cover
don’t judge a book by its cover and I
don’t think anyone does this and I don’t
think any of you will judge a book by
its publisher or its author either so
why would you do the same to human life
why would you judge someone by their
birthplace or their family name or the
place where you happen to meet them or
the place where they were they happens
to be born I mean I don’t know about you
but I’m much more interested in the
story that they’re writing with every
waking breath so next time you meet a
fellow stranger along the road pause for
just a moment because you’re striking up
a conversation and what’s a conversation
when you really think about it isn’t it
just a series of questions and stories
and answer call and response like from
when we were children you asked me a
question I tell you a story I ask you a
question you tell me a story
now most people some people in
conversation ask about birthplace ask
about geography and that’s all they’re
curious about that’s all they’ve ever
wanted and that’s fine but next time if
you ever wanted something more something
more personal something more unique
here’s my suggestion don’t ask the
person about the cards that fate happens
to deal ask about the story they’re
writing don’t ask what the world has
given them ask them what they’re doing
with it thank you
[Applause]
you
you
where are you from everybody picture it
dredge up your past conjure the smells
and the laughs and the stories conjure
your best friend’s voice conjure sea
salt or oil fumes or birdsong give it a
name and allow me to ask how many words
does it take you if you can count the
number on your fingers raise your hand
more or less okay
think about everyone who just raised
their hand think about what you’ve just
done you’ve accomplished an
extraordinary act of synthesis
you’ve managed to sum up your entire
identity all of your memories every
tradition every cultural card that you
hold in a word or two or six everybody
who can’t everybody who is sitting there
brows furrowed murmuring softly awash in
a doubt as old as their lives raise your
hand
let’s see Italy
Puerto Rico Japan Sweden Germany nice
Chicago Ohio Portland Louisiana too many
what you did that active synthesis is
something that we the tribe of wanders
the tribe of people who can’t perform
that act have been trying and failing to
do our whole lives the idea of being
able to do that is something we find
both wonderful and terrifying you want
to know why think back to every time you
meet someone a whole new human being
that you need to at least attempt to
interact with replay the conversation in
your mind hello hi I’m John Smith Luca
Cesare Leopoldo Duvalier Vasquez
pleasure huh that’s an interesting name
where are you from
there it is folks I have the luxury as
still being a teenager
but I won’t be one forever sooner or
later I am going to leave home and when
I do I’m going to wander and I will have
to face that conversation every single
day why why is this such an important
question well look around observe the
words that characterize the TV screen
that we see every morning observe the
words that float across the mass media
in your pockets violence terrorism
racism
bigotry immigration crisis xenophobia
homophobia transphobia ego phobia phobia
phobia phobia fear people fear what they
do not know who they do not know as
American writer Orson Scott Card’s so
choice Lee puts it if the other fellow
can’t tell you his story you can never
be sure he isn’t trying to kill you it
sounds dramatic I know and hey maybe
it’s not oh is that extreme but
somewhere in every one of you there is a
voice the primal animal side
whispering stranger fear distrust
unknown danger to quiet that voice in
another person you must stop being the
stranger you must tell your story it’s
always been like that that this way for
humans and for hundreds of years it’s
worked except the world has changed
today we still leave home of course we
still wander but we no longer go to the
next town or the next Valley over no
nowadays we have the world on our
horizon and every person that uproots
their lives to cross an ocean becomes
suddenly part of an ever-growing tribe a
tribe of people who can’t quite tell
their stories in a handful of words if
you turn on your television and flip to
the news not 20 minutes go by that you
start hearing about an immigration
crisis immigration crisis said like that
all big and important and faceless it’s
daunting it’s terrifying so let’s break
it down
every one of those immigrants that your
TV is talking about could tell you of
two places a place from the past a place
they were and a place from the present
the place they are which makes two
simple right except say they meet
someone and fall in love with someone
that also knows to their children
wouldn’t know four and say one of those
children also meets someone like them
who knows four and they get married
their children well know eight and it
goes on like this cultural
multiplication doubling and tripling
across the generations until this world
is facing a very different kind of
crisis because how can you trust us if
we can’t tell you our stories and we
really can’t because we have no single
story to tell
rather we have too many as you can
probably tell this is something I’ve
thought about a lot and it’s a problem
that’s been persecuting us too strong a
word
it’s been following me around in the
back of my mind my whole life and when I
have a problem I cannot solve I turn to
the community around me and when I first
told my friends that I couldn’t really
figure out what home was for me they
gave me this funny look and they said
well where do you live
isn’t that home for you and of course I
live in Italy and so they were asking
Italian and they’re using the Italian
word Casa because in Italy house and
home are synonymous
the average Italian lives not far from
where they grew up and they feel their
cultural identity in their roots in
their family name in their genetics
right down to the level of a
neighborhood
I chose English for this talk
however partly because it’s my mother
tongue yes but partly because it bears
an important distinction a distinction I
grew up with there’s the house a
building a place nothing more a roof
four walls some ugly carpets maybe but
home home is different home is the place
you come but you can be yourself in home
as the dwelling of the soul well
researching this talk I discovered an
fact that I’d like to share with you
guys there existed in a few hundred
years ago possibly as part of Canada’s
first peoples a people called the Nootka
who lived on Vancouver Island and wanaka
traditionally lived in large plank
houses made of wood that could be
assembled somewhere and then maybe the
next day maybe the next months maybe the
next season when there was a storm or
when the animals moved somewhere else
they could be disassembled and moved
somewhere else for the Nootka and
because of this in the new calanque
home doesn’t exist as a noun but as a
verb one homes or a house occurs home as
something that’s here today gone
tomorrow is built into the language
itself that kind of impermanence that’s
something I couldn’t relate to a little
more but I can’t exactly deliver a
lecture on the linguistic patterns of
the Nootka people every time home comes
up in conversation can I think of when
you meet someone think of that
conversation you tell you ask where
you’re from you’re asking for a story
think about the language we use a moment
to describe stories we tell Mary yarns
we talk about story lines and plot holes
we talk about how character arcs tie
into each other we describe stories the
way we talk about fabric cloth and here
again the English language reaches its
limits because we’re so obsessed with
putting things in boxes we have a
washcloth for washing tablecloths for
eating on shirts and tunics for wearing
a word for everything every word with
its place
what about across the world I have
family in Japan and when my parents and
sister and I first visited we were
gifted furoshiki and what a furoshiki is
is a rectangular cloth it can be of any
color any size and any purpose and I
asked my obaasan my grandmother at the
time is this napkin washcloth is it a
garment and she smiled and she shook her
head and told me that it was a furoshiki
ah furoshiki has no set pattern no set
color no set size and neither does the
tapestry of a human life
so if we can apply this variability of
definition this flexibility to fabric
why not apply the same flexibility to a
human story to a human life
those are after all so much more complex
and valuable than cloth this isn’t the
first time I’ve given this talk I’ve
given it before in front of many many
people wiser than myself and each of
them has considered it carefully and
then looked at me and asked but well you
are from somewhere right back to the
question it’s a great question it really
is it’s full of history and human spirit
tradition culture the problem with it is
that we treat it as the end of a
conversation and not the beginning of
one where are you from where am i from
it’s a question that I’ve been asking
myself my whole life and today is the
day I stop looking because we have
something more interesting I have
something more interesting to give we
all do because here’s the thing when you
strike up a conversation when you meet
someone new you’re asking for a story
for a fiddle Shiki think of the
flexibility of a furoshiki we are born
with with a set of cultural cards in our
hand but those cards are given there
they just happen there from be given by
a destiny fate luck circumstance and
happenstance but they are not the
stories they are not our identities
they’re just places scenic background
cultural background of our lives
back to stories think about stories as
well you read them for the ending you
read them to know what happens you don’t
buy a book to look at its cover you buy
it to know what happens along the
journey to know what happens at the end
since we were little they’ve always told
us don’t judge a book by it’s cover
don’t judge a book by its cover and I
don’t think anyone does this and I don’t
think any of you will judge a book by
its publisher or its author either so
why would you do the same to human life
why would you judge someone by their
birthplace or their family name or the
place where you happen to meet them or
the place where they were they happens
to be born I mean I don’t know about you
but I’m much more interested in the
story that they’re writing with every
waking breath so next time you meet a
fellow stranger along the road pause for
just a moment because you’re striking up
a conversation and what’s a conversation
when you really think about it isn’t it
just a series of questions and stories
and answer call and response like from
when we were children you asked me a
question I tell you a story I ask you a
question you tell me a story
now most people some people in
conversation ask about birthplace ask
about geography and that’s all they’re
curious about that’s all they’ve ever
wanted and that’s fine but next time if
you ever wanted something more something
more personal something more unique
here’s my suggestion don’t ask the
person about the cards that fate happens
to deal ask about the story they’re
writing don’t ask what the world has
given them ask them what they’re doing
with it thank you
[Applause]
you
you
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