Translator: THOMAS BENIGNI Reviewer: Irina Zayats
Hello everyone,
well, I'm here with a special message:
Everyone is a story.
You are a story.
I know it might sound cliché,
but it is so true.
Every single one of you has something unique and yet universal
you can share and that can resonate with everyone in this room.
My name is Nora, and this is Arie.
We are the creators of a project called Human Postcards,
it's a series of short video-portraits capturing
the inspirational stories of everyday people.
Today I want to share with you what I have learnt
from interviewing over 100 people from around the world;
that if you look close enough,
you can find a common thread, thought, feeling or experience,
that connects us all.
My mother is a political refugee from Poland,
and I have inherited a whole set of wonderful skills
that come with being an immigrant’s daughter.
For example,
I always carry cash hidden in different parts of my clothing and bag,
just in case I need to buy myself out of a tricky situation.
I also know how to cook leftovers 4 times in a row, without you even noticing
you are eating the same chicken as day 1!
I know...
I also believe in my mother’s advice,
that the only thing I really own and no one can take away from me,
is my knowledge.
It is the only possession I can take anywhere, anytime, in a moment's notice.
So, my mother also says to me;
“People are a source of knowledge.
Listen to them as much as possible
and ask them as many questions as you can."
So that's what I did!
As soon as I saved up enough money,
I began to travel the world,
listening to people,
asking them questions;
to learn from their experiences, their perspectives and their unique lives,
so I could better understand my own.
As a consequence, the highlights of my travels were never the landscape
or the architecture of the places I visited...
but the people I would meet.
And with time, I felt a growing need to share these encounters.
I wanted to send a postcard, in a sense,
just to say:
“I met this person.
This person exists.
This is a piece of that person.
Life is beautiful!”
And this feeling led me to create the project Human Postcards.
Human Postcards' story starts with a Human Billboard.
Picture one of London’s busiest streets.
Alive with a constant movement of people rushing from A to B.
People shopping, people on their way to work,
tourists,
people on buses, in cars...
And in the middle of that constant movement,
there is a person, a man standing still.
He's wearing a big bright green billboard suit indicating a golf shop nearby.
I passed him every day.
Every day he would stand for hours and hours,
as we all rushed past him,
or walked around him.
Avoiding his presence like a pillar in our path.
But over time I started to wonder if I could capture his story
in a way that could hold the attention of all these busy people.
If I could show them the human behind the billboard.
So after observing him for a few days,
I finally approached him.
I had no plan in mind.
I filmed him with my phone and asked him a few questions.
And I learned that he was from Bangladesh
and he used to be a schoolteacher back there.
And while standing in that street, often, he was reciting poetry in his mind.
After our conversation I rushed back home, to edit the voice and the footage together
and the result gave me goosebumps...
To see him standing in that crowd, almost invisible,
and yet hear something sounding like his inner voice
felt so moving, so awakening.
In that moment, Human Postcards was born.
Human Postcards is an on going web-series
capturing the inspirational and often powerful messages
of everyday people around the world.
I created the project in 2015 with my partner and fiancé Arie van der Poel,
a Sound Engineer from New Zealand.
Together we have produced over 100 unique 'Postcards' in 11 countries.
Every postcard is one-minute long,
and focuses on one aspect or one idea of someone’s personal life.
But most of all, I must admit it's just a great excuse
for me to meet new people and ask them as many questions as I want,
like mama said.
So I think the best way for me to explain our project
is to show you some of the beautiful people we were lucky to meet.
I'll start with Jake, a triple amputee.
Jake lost both of his feet and an arm in a snowstorm in Greenland,
where he used to work.
We asked him a few questions about his journey and his rehabilitation.
And now I'd like to show you a Postcard from Jake to you.
(Man's Laugh)
I'm an amputee because of frostbite.
To be honest...
I probably wouldn't trade it in for anything now...
Many people ask me:
"Your choice: would you like to have your legs back or your arm back?"
And it used to be "Oh, i'd love my hand back...
I can do without my legs".
Now, I'm actually happy the way I am.
This is me.
Hopefully this has given me a whole new way of looking at things.
It does make you practice those things that maybe you only thought about before.
How to be a good person.
How to go to the toilet in the woods.
Simple things like that, suddenly become very real things.
It's not always easy to do...
But it's actually easy to try.
(Applause)
Thank you.
The next Postcard I'd like to show you is about an 8 year old boy called Iñaki.
I've asked him one of my favourite questions:
“What is the most beautiful thing that happened in your life?”
And here is his answer, this Postcard from Iñaki to you.
(Birds singing)
The most beautiful thing that happened in my life is that I was born.
We should all be grateful that we're born 'cause then we wouldn't be here.
We wouldn't have any life, we'd just be nothing...
Not even a piece of dust just floating around...
Just nothing.
Sometimes I feel like what it would be like to be nothing and not exist...
but I can't... I'm alive, I'm not just nothing,
I'm actually something...
That lives.
That can move, and that can feel, and that can smell, and that can taste
and that I can think...
and that I can make the most of my life.
And that I'm actually here, instead of nothing.
Quite impressive little boy, I know.
Remember, these people are all around you,
in your everyday life.
We are all ordinary people with extra-ordinary points of view
if we're just given a chance to express ourselves.
Over the past 2 years my partner and I have travelled the world
with no other goal but to interview and film the people we met.
And as we were conducting more and more interviews,
we came to realise that listening is not just an act of taking,
like I thought my mum had told me,
but that it also means giving.
When you listen to someone,
you give them a space and time to express themselves,
to put their ideas together.
You offer the other person
the opportunity to feel your interest, your love, and your compassion.
This idea itself is not really new,
and the messages of our Postcards are not groundbreaking
like so many of the TED talks I have watched.
I would describe our project a little like this:
I practice yoga every morning,
and every morning I can't believe how stiff my body feels.
I need to remind it that it can bend, and move and twist.
Our mind is the same,
it needs to be reminded.
Big ideas are not the only thing we should strive for,
because every idea has power if you listen with care.
For example,
if I tell you breathing is important,
I am not controlling your breathing,
but maybe I make you more aware of your breathing.
Now, or later...
The messages I cherish the most from the people I interview
are the most simple and raw ideas.
Like James, for example.
He is a cancer survivor.
and he reminds us that
a challenge can be seen as an opportunity to re-invent yourself.
Or Ibu Robin Lim, she is a midwife in Indonesia,
and she tells to mothers they have the most important job in the world.
And says to them:
“You are world peace executives, it’s on your lap that the child learns peace”.
Or George, a 10-year-old boy from a small town.
He makes arts & crafts from recycled materials.
And he tells us wisely:
"Maybe one day, we might not have wool or cotton around
and we should cherish it while it is here."
I’d like to finish today by giving you a simple question
you can ask the next person you meet.
It can be someone you know,
it can be the person sitting next to you,
it can be a cashier in a shop if no one is in line behind you...
Ask them “What is the most beautiful thing that happened in their life?"
We've asked this question around the world,
and I can assure you it will reward you with a heartfelt story.
Because everyone is a story you can learn from.
The person sitting to the left, and to the right of you, are stories.
If you just take a little extra time to look at them from the right angle,
you might bring out these extra-ordinary stories
out of people who might otherwise feel like they have nothing special to share
Empowering you and them at the same time.
Thank you.
(Applause)