Transcriber: Ella Sasanelli Reviewer: David DeRuwe
In 1976,
renowned author and poet Shel Silverstein published “The Missing Piece.”
It is technically a child’s book,
but like many of his works, there are messages in there for adults as well.
The story features a circle that’s had a piece cut out,
and during the story, it undertakes a journey
and seems that it’s looking for its missing piece.
Along the way,
it meets all sorts of pieces, but some are too big, some are too small,
some are just the wrong shape, and no piece fits.
And then one day, the circle finds the missing piece.
And they travel along together for a while.
But then a revelation occurs:
They realize, despite being a perfect fit, something is wrong,
so they part ways,
and the circle, this is my favorite part,
continues along its journey seemingly looking for its missing piece.
This story can be an allegory for a number of situations,
but in this case,
what if that missing piece was the “tomorrow” of this TED talk thing.
What if the circle actually had reached tomorrow by finding that piece
and realized that once it was there, there was nothing else to do?
What I like about the theme statement “Walking Towards Tomorrow”
is that tomorrow never comes.
It’s always tomorrow, so why do we walk?
This is where that circle in Silverstein’s book shows us the way:
it continues its search.
It realizes that the destination is not what is important,
but it’s the journey you take on your way there.
High school seems to be all about destinations and goals:
do your homework, study hard, get your grades, pass, graduate,
get ready for university, get into the trade school of your choice.
Spoiler alert -
when you get to university, it’s exactly the same:
study hard, take your exams, get your grades, graduate,
find the perfect job.
Bigger spoiler alert - the rest of your life’s like that.
(Laughter)
But if you step back for a minute
and look at all of those goals and destinations,
they really are just steps along that journey.
Bruce Chatwin in his book “What Am I Doing Here?”
says “Man’s real home is not a house but the road,”
and that “Life itself is a journey to be walked on foot.”
Here we find the same ideas as identified by Silverstein,
like the circle spends his life looking for its missing piece,
even after it finds the perfect piece,
if you’re turn to Chatwin, he says that the point of life,
the very essence of life, is to actually do the walking.
Chatwin also adds that we walk this journey on foot,
and that’s significant.
There are no buses, no trains,
not even roller skates to help you get there faster.
You have to take every single step of this journey with your own two feet.
This idea tells us that, on our walk,
we cannot sidestep the challenges and events
that help us to grow, that help us to gain wisdom,
that help us to learn more about our path in the world.
We have to meet all of these head-on as we travel,
and these steps can be terribly painful
or incredibly joyful
or as simple as reaching each of those goalposts and destinations as you travel.
In episode two of “The Power of Myth,”
a televised series of interviews in 1988 by Bill Moyers with Joseph Campbell,
(Whispering) he’s the reason George Lucas made Star Wars,
Mr. Campbell said, “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaningful life.
I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking.
I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.”
An experience of being alive.
The steps we take by foot
are the ones that give us that experience of being alive.
If we live vicariously,
if we live by passively accepting the directions of others,
and having others tell us what to do in our lives,
is that really living?
No, it’s just existing.
Living is doing.
It’s traveling that journey, making decisions,
reaching those goalposts on every step along the way.
We cannot truly experience being alive until we step out onto that journey.
And here we see again the idea that it is not the destination.
Here, the meaning of life is the experience of being alive.
“Being” being the operative word.
It’s an always current, never-ending process,
only interrupted, as far as we know, by death.
The final destination in your physical life,
the true end of the journey, again as far as we know, is when you die.
Philosophically, it’s when we no longer grow,
no longer gain wisdom, and no longer learn.
In that case, as long as we are physically alive, why do we want to stop?
This is why “Walking Towards Tomorrow” is so powerful: you never reach tomorrow.
So you continue walking, gain knowledge and wisdom and empathy and understanding
as you go along that journey,
Like that circle in Shel Silverstein’s story.
you are continually on this journey to find your missing piece.
And that missing piece is the journey itself.
I’ll end with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
By now, you probably got an idea of what it might be about.
It comes from his essay “Self-Reliance,” which was first published in 1841.
“It’s not the destination. It’s the journey.”
Thank you.
(Applause)