[Applause]
do you remember the first time someone
asked you what do you want to be when
you grow up do you remember what you
thought what you said this is my first
answer to that question at about age 6
for those of you who can’t quite make
out what this is
it’s a bagpiper I was a bit of an odd
six-year-old but to be fair I wasn’t
thinking in terms of a viable future
profession in the honorable art of
bagpiping there isn’t one by the way I
was trying to express something that had
captured and shaped my imagination at
the time think back to some of your
earliest responses to that question
maybe you’ll notice a similar pattern
because when you really look at it this
question is actually kind of sneaky it’s
an adult march into our child mind and
world asking us to explain it’s strange
wild landscape in the form of an
industry and an occupation it’s an
attempt to make landfall plant a flag
and start colonizing is it any wonder
that the question that we adults feel
most comfortable asking someone we just
met is so what do you do the loneliness
that I’ve ever felt is when I woke up
one day as a full-on grown-up and
realized that I’d focus for so long on
what I wanted to be or what I thought I
was supposed to want to be that I didn’t
know who I actually was the stories in
my head had stopped the portals in my
universe had been closed the bagpiper
had gone silent it was in the middle of
this time of loneliness and confusion
that wonder appeared to me as real as
any imaginary friend and invited me to
get to know it
I didn’t know it at the time but this
relationship with wonder would reshape
every aspect of my life mind and work it
would lead me to quit my job change my
beliefs and meet and work with kids all
over the world and it would show me
what’s possible when you ask a better
question one that I’m here to share with
you what if instead of asking kids what
do you want to be when you grow up we
asked them what do you wonder about this
simple shift holds great power and
permission to bring back things within
ourselves that we might have long
forgotten to believe that there is much
we have yet to imagine and to share that
rich world with each other I want to
talk more about how this happens but
first another question why aren’t we
doing this already to answer that we
have to look at what wonder really is if
you were to look around you today for
our cultural view of wonder
you’d be likely to see bright colors big
letters and aspirational add like
messages none of these things are wrong
or untrue wonder is in fact a wonderful
thing but it’s a bit OneNote and there’s
a reason for this slightly anesthetized
oversimplification wonder if you look
with a sharper focus is ambiguous
duplicitous even looking at the origins
of the word wonder starts to tell us why
it ranges from the Old English one
drienne meaning a marvellous thing or a
miracle to the middle English one door
meaning to entertain some doubt or
curiosity to finally the German word
vonda meaning an opening or wound so on
the one hand wonder represents the act
of questioning the reaching out to
advance what we know on the other it
represents a feeling discovery or
experience that causes us to let go of
what we thought we knew in a sweeping
moment of
ah the result of either of these things
create something new and dismantle
something known at the same time
something which can be experienced as
incredible or painful depending on our
vantage point that’s all in there in
that one little word in our society
built on and addicted to speed
convenience and the domination of the
known no wonder we feel the need to tame
it and yet to bring wonder into our
lives in a real way we have to
acknowledge that this seeming
contradiction as uncomfortable as it can
be is actually part of its nature and
can help us to understand our own I
discovered this while working with a
remarkable group of people to build the
wonderment when I tell people that my
job for the last six years has been to
support kids around the world to use
their sense of wonder to build a new
sense of humanity together I usually get
a look and if that look had a sound it
would be right but guess what it’s a
real thing we built a nonprofit web
platform and where kids could gather and
share what they imagined in their
neighborhoods in the world we knew that
it wasn’t enough just to encourage kids
to wonder we knew that they needed to
experience the power of sharing that
with each other and could take action
together to bring it into the world and
we knew that we as adults needed to
learn how to walk alongside them and
support them in that process so as ideas
and projects began to grow as this
wondering we brought together mentors
donors and volunteers to help make them
a reality we took one sometimes shaky
step at a time learning from kids and
ideas all over the world and some
amazing things started to happen we
worked with a group of high school
students in Guatemala to turn an old
sheriff’s bus into a mobile library that
they could use to go to
kids and surrounding rural areas to help
them learn and love to read kids from
Italy
Israel’s Spain and more organized a
cultural summit and brought to young
members of the Carrows tribe in the high
Andes of Peru to Costa Rica to share
their knowledge and traditions with
hundreds of students and make
international friendships that will last
for the rest of their lives
kids from over 25 countries have
connected and gotten to know each other
over the last several years through
projects and ideas like these that
started with them including a refugee
community bus right here in Salt Lake
City there’s part of me that wishes that
I could tell you that this is the
solution that we figured it out once and
for all that all the stories were
beautiful like these and then all that’s
left to do is package and deliver wonder
to solve the world’s problems some of
that’s true but as we’ve seen already
wonder doesn’t do well with
oversimplification what’s also true is
it the same reaction that you might have
gotten as a kid to your crazy idea or
question is alive and well
no matter what age you are most days
have more unknowns than knowns and for
every person who sees and supports a
vision there are twenty more including
one in here who would love nothing more
than to tell you why it won’t work why
it doesn’t make sense why there are more
responsible things that you should be
doing and more knowledgeable people who
could do it better so what then when
Wonder and the world around you don’t
seem to fit so nicely I want you to
imagine the first time you stood on a
ledge facing a set of monkey bars if
you’re anything like I was at this age
this is next-level daring and sorcery
you quickly realize that there are two
very basic things required here reaching
out and letting go but there’s a mystery
at the heart of it which you immediately
face when you end up like this if you
think that you can make it all the way
across well thinking of those two things
as separate acts you’re screwed
trust me those arms just don’t have the
strength the thing that generates the
momentum is the breakthrough experience
of realizing it’s all part of the same
motion I want you to remember in your
body what that feels like this is the
truth and the power of wonder it’s not a
nice feeling or a vague dream it’s not a
nostalgic nod to a lost childhood it’s a
practice it’s taking a deep breath and
having the guts to reach out let go
reach out let go and as a result of this
willingness feeling an amazing force
somehow carrying you forward in this
primal rhythm of playgrounds everywhere
I loved and believed in the wonderment
so much that it made me afraid afraid
that it might not be understood or
supported and that somewhere somehow
that meant that I wasn’t understood or
supported and this fear made me hold on
to expectations both my own and others
of what it would be when it grew up I
found myself doing the same thing to the
project that we do to our kids feeling
the same pressure to explain plan
measure justify predict sometimes from
the very people closest to me even my
own board and suddenly in the midst of
it I realized why we do it why we grasp
so tightly that we drive wonder away
it’s because deep down we wish we had
the kind of control to keep what we love
safe in a world that seems to have a
million ways to hurt it I choose to stay
open and stand with Wonder come marvel
or wound because I know now it’s the
only way to stay connected to that part
of myself that allows me to truly
connect to anyone or anything else this
is a daily choice and it goes beyond
just my creative or professional life I
also have a six-year-old son like any
parent my desire to know that he’ll be
okay
feels overwhelming sometimes I wish I
had a guarantee the who live in a world
where he’d be happy safe and successful
but I don’t none of us do I don’t have a
lot of knowns to give him and I know
that there are kids around the world and
in our own neighborhood who were given
even fewer but I also remember what
finally got my me to trust myself enough
to try on those monkey bars as a kid it
was seeing someone I cared about someone
older show me what that looked like
so reach out and ask yourself what do
you wonder let go of what tells you you
can’t or you shouldn’t or you’re too old
or it’s a waste of time share what you
find with the people in your life no
matter their age then ask them this is
how we reclaim ourselves and each other
from the loneliness and fear that we
experience when we believe that we have
to separate from our most essential self
our child’s self to survive in this
world reach out let go reach out let go
who you are is needed because of what we
make possible from that place
together day by day we can call forward
that human magic within us they cannot
help but transform the world around us
wildly curiously this is the kind of
belonging that includes every one of us
and helps us to recognize each other for
the discoveries that we are this is how
we move forward into a future that we
all belong in and this can never be
bought or contained or won or controlled
this is the awe of the gift Wonder
offers us thank you
[Applause]
do you remember the first time someone
asked you what do you want to be when
you grow up do you remember what you
thought what you said this is my first
answer to that question at about age 6
for those of you who can’t quite make
out what this is
it’s a bagpiper I was a bit of an odd
six-year-old but to be fair I wasn’t
thinking in terms of a viable future
profession in the honorable art of
bagpiping there isn’t one by the way I
was trying to express something that had
captured and shaped my imagination at
the time think back to some of your
earliest responses to that question
maybe you’ll notice a similar pattern
because when you really look at it this
question is actually kind of sneaky it’s
an adult march into our child mind and
world asking us to explain it’s strange
wild landscape in the form of an
industry and an occupation it’s an
attempt to make landfall plant a flag
and start colonizing is it any wonder
that the question that we adults feel
most comfortable asking someone we just
met is so what do you do the loneliness
that I’ve ever felt is when I woke up
one day as a full-on grown-up and
realized that I’d focus for so long on
what I wanted to be or what I thought I
was supposed to want to be that I didn’t
know who I actually was the stories in
my head had stopped the portals in my
universe had been closed the bagpiper
had gone silent it was in the middle of
this time of loneliness and confusion
that wonder appeared to me as real as
any imaginary friend and invited me to
get to know it
I didn’t know it at the time but this
relationship with wonder would reshape
every aspect of my life mind and work it
would lead me to quit my job change my
beliefs and meet and work with kids all
over the world and it would show me
what’s possible when you ask a better
question one that I’m here to share with
you what if instead of asking kids what
do you want to be when you grow up we
asked them what do you wonder about this
simple shift holds great power and
permission to bring back things within
ourselves that we might have long
forgotten to believe that there is much
we have yet to imagine and to share that
rich world with each other I want to
talk more about how this happens but
first another question why aren’t we
doing this already to answer that we
have to look at what wonder really is if
you were to look around you today for
our cultural view of wonder
you’d be likely to see bright colors big
letters and aspirational add like
messages none of these things are wrong
or untrue wonder is in fact a wonderful
thing but it’s a bit OneNote and there’s
a reason for this slightly anesthetized
oversimplification wonder if you look
with a sharper focus is ambiguous
duplicitous even looking at the origins
of the word wonder starts to tell us why
it ranges from the Old English one
drienne meaning a marvellous thing or a
miracle to the middle English one door
meaning to entertain some doubt or
curiosity to finally the German word
vonda meaning an opening or wound so on
the one hand wonder represents the act
of questioning the reaching out to
advance what we know on the other it
represents a feeling discovery or
experience that causes us to let go of
what we thought we knew in a sweeping
moment of
ah the result of either of these things
create something new and dismantle
something known at the same time
something which can be experienced as
incredible or painful depending on our
vantage point that’s all in there in
that one little word in our society
built on and addicted to speed
convenience and the domination of the
known no wonder we feel the need to tame
it and yet to bring wonder into our
lives in a real way we have to
acknowledge that this seeming
contradiction as uncomfortable as it can
be is actually part of its nature and
can help us to understand our own I
discovered this while working with a
remarkable group of people to build the
wonderment when I tell people that my
job for the last six years has been to
support kids around the world to use
their sense of wonder to build a new
sense of humanity together I usually get
a look and if that look had a sound it
would be right but guess what it’s a
real thing we built a nonprofit web
platform and where kids could gather and
share what they imagined in their
neighborhoods in the world we knew that
it wasn’t enough just to encourage kids
to wonder we knew that they needed to
experience the power of sharing that
with each other and could take action
together to bring it into the world and
we knew that we as adults needed to
learn how to walk alongside them and
support them in that process so as ideas
and projects began to grow as this
wondering we brought together mentors
donors and volunteers to help make them
a reality we took one sometimes shaky
step at a time learning from kids and
ideas all over the world and some
amazing things started to happen we
worked with a group of high school
students in Guatemala to turn an old
sheriff’s bus into a mobile library that
they could use to go to
kids and surrounding rural areas to help
them learn and love to read kids from
Italy
Israel’s Spain and more organized a
cultural summit and brought to young
members of the Carrows tribe in the high
Andes of Peru to Costa Rica to share
their knowledge and traditions with
hundreds of students and make
international friendships that will last
for the rest of their lives
kids from over 25 countries have
connected and gotten to know each other
over the last several years through
projects and ideas like these that
started with them including a refugee
community bus right here in Salt Lake
City there’s part of me that wishes that
I could tell you that this is the
solution that we figured it out once and
for all that all the stories were
beautiful like these and then all that’s
left to do is package and deliver wonder
to solve the world’s problems some of
that’s true but as we’ve seen already
wonder doesn’t do well with
oversimplification what’s also true is
it the same reaction that you might have
gotten as a kid to your crazy idea or
question is alive and well
no matter what age you are most days
have more unknowns than knowns and for
every person who sees and supports a
vision there are twenty more including
one in here who would love nothing more
than to tell you why it won’t work why
it doesn’t make sense why there are more
responsible things that you should be
doing and more knowledgeable people who
could do it better so what then when
Wonder and the world around you don’t
seem to fit so nicely I want you to
imagine the first time you stood on a
ledge facing a set of monkey bars if
you’re anything like I was at this age
this is next-level daring and sorcery
you quickly realize that there are two
very basic things required here reaching
out and letting go but there’s a mystery
at the heart of it which you immediately
face when you end up like this if you
think that you can make it all the way
across well thinking of those two things
as separate acts you’re screwed
trust me those arms just don’t have the
strength the thing that generates the
momentum is the breakthrough experience
of realizing it’s all part of the same
motion I want you to remember in your
body what that feels like this is the
truth and the power of wonder it’s not a
nice feeling or a vague dream it’s not a
nostalgic nod to a lost childhood it’s a
practice it’s taking a deep breath and
having the guts to reach out let go
reach out let go and as a result of this
willingness feeling an amazing force
somehow carrying you forward in this
primal rhythm of playgrounds everywhere
I loved and believed in the wonderment
so much that it made me afraid afraid
that it might not be understood or
supported and that somewhere somehow
that meant that I wasn’t understood or
supported and this fear made me hold on
to expectations both my own and others
of what it would be when it grew up I
found myself doing the same thing to the
project that we do to our kids feeling
the same pressure to explain plan
measure justify predict sometimes from
the very people closest to me even my
own board and suddenly in the midst of
it I realized why we do it why we grasp
so tightly that we drive wonder away
it’s because deep down we wish we had
the kind of control to keep what we love
safe in a world that seems to have a
million ways to hurt it I choose to stay
open and stand with Wonder come marvel
or wound because I know now it’s the
only way to stay connected to that part
of myself that allows me to truly
connect to anyone or anything else this
is a daily choice and it goes beyond
just my creative or professional life I
also have a six-year-old son like any
parent my desire to know that he’ll be
okay
feels overwhelming sometimes I wish I
had a guarantee the who live in a world
where he’d be happy safe and successful
but I don’t none of us do I don’t have a
lot of knowns to give him and I know
that there are kids around the world and
in our own neighborhood who were given
even fewer but I also remember what
finally got my me to trust myself enough
to try on those monkey bars as a kid it
was seeing someone I cared about someone
older show me what that looked like
so reach out and ask yourself what do
you wonder let go of what tells you you
can’t or you shouldn’t or you’re too old
or it’s a waste of time share what you
find with the people in your life no
matter their age then ask them this is
how we reclaim ourselves and each other
from the loneliness and fear that we
experience when we believe that we have
to separate from our most essential self
our child’s self to survive in this
world reach out let go reach out let go
who you are is needed because of what we
make possible from that place
together day by day we can call forward
that human magic within us they cannot
help but transform the world around us
wildly curiously this is the kind of
belonging that includes every one of us
and helps us to recognize each other for
the discoveries that we are this is how
we move forward into a future that we
all belong in and this can never be
bought or contained or won or controlled
this is the awe of the gift Wonder
offers us thank you
[Applause]
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