I know someone who walked in silence for the first 100 days of a march across the country. She refused to speak or even write down words and would only make up a sign language of gestures, humming a tune, or laughing. Sometimes she would even cry and once she ran off to hide in a tree because our words of argument and non-communicating were so frustrating. She kept signing for togetherness. She did this for the sake of those without a voice. She was on the Great March for Climate Action and we were all walking to "change the national conversation about the climate crisis". I'll say she did more to change our "conversation" into real communication than anyone else. After that 100 days she spoke because we agreed that someone would choose a day of silence for each day of the march and that we would do it in relay until we got to Washington, D.C. I think that was a profound lesson. She changed us with love and listening. Hugs, a song, and the gleam of love in your eyes can change the world around you. It can probably change the world.
This is an amazing story, it's so sad that this would be essentially impossible these days. I'm autistic and don't like talking, I've often wished I could just go completely silent, but it's so hard in today's overly busy, overly loud world where you have to communicate just to get by.
I don't like talking. My thoughts become very busy when people are talking around me. I become so immersed in what everyone else is saying and how it makes me feel. I run through my internal hamster wheel interpreting what was just said. Once I figure that out, I'll think about what I have to say and then say it. I am not autistic, just sensitive.
John Francis is my new hero. I have recently contemplated taking a vow of silence, and a simple Google search led me here. I work in the maritime industry as a Pilot boat Master, and John's sentiments about motorised vehicles resonated with my own thoughts. Every time I push those throttles I'm thinking about how much emissions are being burnt into our air. Having read Buddhist ideas of good livelihood, I know that my career brings stress to both the environment and myself. I've been working on a 5 year plan on how to leave this line of work, this talk is really is inspirational, I feel that finding this has helped me to commit to my goals.
What a great story teller .. I can imagine sitting around a fire with my daughter.. listening to a story with life lessons intertwined. Thank you. Really enjoyed it.
I have taken a vow of silence after attending vipassana meditation course from this month.. And I am going to practice this for my whole life.. Right now only 50 words I spead in a day that too I am trying to reduce wherever possible 🤞🎯 it's a very liberating kind of experience..
Yep I got yelled at too and I wrote my granny a note to say I’m not speaking and she threw the note across the room ppl get really triggered when they can’t get narcissistic supply or your mental attention or energy.
I talk so much I have almost an overwhelming feeling of responsibility to "teach" people. This morning I had an emotional awakening to take a vow of silence. This video was wonderful. Thank You and WOW!❤
I have never been inspired by anyone other than my father anywhere near as much as by John Francis. I am altering my lifestyle radically, but aspire to live totally car free someday soon.
what an incredible story... after hearing this i will try to be silent for an hour a day. who knows it mite change my perspective and teach me to listen more! he is the american version of gandi and i'm proud to have watched this...peace everyone and have a good day or night. which ever finds you best...
Beside every wonderful word he just said, beside every inspiring, mind blowing stories he just tell, I love love the way he smiles and the brightness in his eyes. It catchs me and yes he just touched me, my heart. ❤😊😊👍👍 I loved the environmentalists. "We are environment. If we see how we treated eachother, we see how we treated environment. ", "If we can change the way we treated eachother(from bad to good), we can change the world for good." Awesome video. 👍👍😇
Aw man, I really needed to hear this! :) I've been on the cusp of a big life decision for the past year, and I've been hesitant to leave behind the security that I've built up for myself, over the course of my entire life. But I know that I need to, in order to become the person that I want to become in the end. And I've been feeling as though remaining in this secure bubble that I've created for myself, has actually been hindering me. It's been making me anxious and restless and helpless. I've become comfortable and dependent on my current situation, and have become controlling an uneasy, in that I don't want it to change. But those very feelings are the reason I NEED it to change. To be comfortable with change, and to be comfortable to break down those walls that I've built up for myself, to be able to step beyond them to become the person that I truly want to be. It may be difficult, but it will make me happier, in the long run! Thank you! This is exactly what I needed to hear! :)
a wonderful talk. and a really great message. never seen anything like it. we should strive to be a little bit like him, while striving to "be" ourselves.
I really enjoyed this talk. He's right about the silence: it's a moving experience. I haven't really realized it before. I wouldn't necessarily define me as a quiet person, but I am often in a sort of silent mood, and you're able to hear things and understand others in a way you didn't before.
Sou brasileiro e gostei muito da sua história e vou mim incentivar em você, não ficando sem falar por 17 anos mais por ser uma pessoa que não desiste, uma pessoa esforçada. Incrível incrível sua história
I found comfort in silence when I was still a child full of questions and some hurts and perhaps would be on it again in this season but not necessarily because of pain.
It's interesting to see how different a lifestyle John has pursued and how he has become. I can't help wonder how he ate and survived for those 7 years walking across the Continent.
I'm impressed with him, and I feel there is something to learn, but I feel I need to feel for myself the passion to change in such a way. Incredible story. I'm inspired, I just don'k know how or do what end. Time will tell!
Thank you @JohnFrancis I love travelling from my inner heart. So TED talks, like John Francis walks the Earth, really give me a big image what the human can really have done on our mother earth. In one life, what it really matters if I could keep walking on.
Instead of voting you down like a lot of other people, I think that's a valid question. What is the point? Well, I'd say to try and consider how 'life would be like' if people were to take his approach, but I too have the same skepticism. Why live for anyone but yourself? Giving to yourself, in my opinion; is essential, before you can give to others. It's really not up to anyone else but you to come up with the 'point' of changing. No one else can convince you to change, it's up to you.
hes saying that, the way to make people start caring about the enviroment is to make them care about eachother, however hard that may be. If you think of us as indifferent to eachother, we use pollution and ignorance of the damage as a metaphorical attack on eachother. We dont care about how we damage eachother, hence we dont care that we are polluting and harming eachother
I watched this because I want to make video games, but I am struggling with making art, using tools that are produced in sweatshops--computers, tablets, VR headsets, etc. But my original desire was to speak to people today, and over and above what I feel I need to teach people about my experience and ideas, I want to give them a mirror in which they can see clearly. So if that means making games that simply make people take a look at themselves, then I will have fulfilled my desire...
@@wayfaringstranger8430 Sorry, I didn't explain fully, I was talking about feeling guilty about the environment/sweatshop workers producing computers that people play video games on.
Saw him in Minneapolis at the U of MN. Great, great storyteller and speaker, especially live. And of course, the banjo sounds better live as well - the video camera narrows and distorts the audio. I own the book now, it kicks ass. That's my two cents!
Seriously. Just watch this video. John Francis took a 17 yr. vow of silence and swore off motorized vehicles for 20 years after an oil spill in the SF Bay. In that time, he earned a B.A., a Masters and his PhD, all while walking around the country. He taught college while not speaking, and is one of the world's leading experts on on oil spills.
“On occasion, I would become so wedded to my thoughts, to some cascade of ideas that I actually lost touch with the details that my body was still gathering, from a place. The ear heard the song of a vesper sparrow, the mind pleased with itself for identifying those notes as the song of a vesper sparrow was too occupied, with its summary to notice that the ear was still offering. The mind was making no use of the body's ability to be discerning, about sounds. So the mind's knowledge of the place, remains superficial.” - Barry Lopez
I knew about John Francis and his story for years, but I wish I had posted this to share with everyone sooner. May you watch this man speak and be inspired. He lived out where I grew up in beautiful West Marin.
There is a god. And he looks like you, and he looks like me too. If each person in this world begin to treat each life form with respect as each life form is a creation of god, then you will begin seeing the environment changing. Little by little, it will and it can change. As Mahatma Gandhi once said,"You must be the change you want to see in this world." You see we are all interconnected.Yes, the change is now here. More and more people are awakening to this message. It begins with the people.
![The Power of Walking and Silence - [English]: John Francis at TEDxTokyo](/img/n.gif)
We are abusing our senses. We are taking in so much information without thinking about them. This is such a great video. I'm completely moved.
I feel his emotion when he talks about people coming to hear him speak. Waiting 17 years to be heard is profound.
I know someone who walked in silence for the first 100 days of a march across the country. She refused to speak or even write down words and would only make up a sign language of gestures, humming a tune, or laughing. Sometimes she would even cry and once she ran off to hide in a tree because our words of argument and non-communicating were so frustrating.
She kept signing for togetherness. She did this for the sake of those without a voice. She was on the Great March for Climate Action and we were all walking to "change the national conversation about the climate crisis". I'll say she did more to change our "conversation" into real communication than anyone else. After that 100 days she spoke because we agreed that someone would choose a day of silence for each day of the march and that we would do it in relay until we got to Washington, D.C. I think that was a profound lesson. She changed us with love and listening. Hugs, a song, and the gleam of love in your eyes can change the world around you. It can probably change the world.
any more info? Wonderful story
Really really beautiful story.
It will change the world. Thank you for this.
I know Mr. Francis in real life. What a friendly man he is.
Reid Shriver What a moron and a waste of a life
@@MrThe1234guy Your mentality is a disease, You are a leech..
Reid Shriver ~ he really does generally seem to be.
yeah me too bro. i smoked weed with him and Barack Obama
Kind, resilient and brilliant. He's my inspiration to keep on. If there's will, there is a way.
This is an amazing story, it's so sad that this would be essentially impossible these days. I'm autistic and don't like talking, I've often wished I could just go completely silent, but it's so hard in today's overly busy, overly loud world where you have to communicate just to get by.
I don't like talking. My thoughts become very busy when people are talking around me. I become so immersed in what everyone else is saying and how it makes me feel. I run through my internal hamster wheel interpreting what was just said. Once I figure that out, I'll think about what I have to say and then say it. I am not autistic, just sensitive.
Sometimes the people who say nothing at all say the most... remember that.
John Francis is my new hero. I have recently contemplated taking a vow of silence, and a simple Google search led me here. I work in the maritime industry as a Pilot boat Master, and John's sentiments about motorised vehicles resonated with my own thoughts. Every time I push those throttles I'm thinking about how much emissions are being burnt into our air. Having read Buddhist ideas of good livelihood, I know that my career brings stress to both the environment and myself. I've been working on a 5 year plan on how to leave this line of work, this talk is really is inspirational, I feel that finding this has helped me to commit to my goals.
This was 4 years ago according to my screen. I hope that you are 4 years closer to where you want to be, internet stranger.
A girl once asked me, ' Why can't I find a guy like you?' I said " I don't know, if I see a guy like me, I'll ask him.
Lol
A woman once asked me, "where are all the good men?"I replied, "At work taking care of a woman."
@bobbyjones-uv5cn Lol why gotta support her while she chilling 😎
What a great story teller .. I can imagine sitting around a fire with my daughter.. listening to a story with life lessons intertwined.
Thank you. Really enjoyed it.
I knew Mr Francis in West Cape May: walking. What a genuine man!!
Carlos P. Perú 🇵🇪
I have taken a vow of silence after attending vipassana meditation course from this month.. And I am going to practice this for my whole life.. Right now only 50 words I spead in a day that too I am trying to reduce wherever possible 🤞🎯 it's a very liberating kind of experience..
Are you still commited to your vow of silence?
I tried not talking for a while but my mother kept yelling at me for it.
NobodyInTraining Shhhh...
Julius Red wow really, i bet he didnt think of that
Yep I got yelled at too and I wrote my granny a note to say I’m not speaking and she threw the note across the room ppl get really triggered when they can’t get narcissistic supply or your mental attention or energy.
😁
Currently reading his book had to find this. I'm so inspired. ❤️
I saw him in 2007. I’m a lot older but today he’s still an inspiration.
And such an amazing voice it is.
BoxANT Yeah and he wasted so long
I talk so much I have almost an overwhelming feeling of responsibility to "teach" people. This morning I had an emotional awakening to take a vow of silence. This video was wonderful. Thank You and WOW!❤
I have never been inspired by anyone other than my father anywhere near as much as by John Francis. I am altering my lifestyle radically, but aspire to live totally car free someday soon.
what an incredible story... after hearing this i will try to be silent for an hour a day. who knows it mite change my perspective and teach me to listen more! he is the american version of gandi and i'm proud to have watched this...peace everyone and have a good day or night. which ever finds you best...
So inspiring; so humble. remarkable. What a difference maker!
This is so powerful!
The world needs more of this type of courage.
this guy is simply amazing
Beside every wonderful word he just said, beside every inspiring, mind blowing stories he just tell, I love love the way he smiles and the brightness in his eyes. It catchs me and yes he just touched me, my heart. ❤😊😊👍👍
I loved the environmentalists. "We are environment. If we see how we treated eachother, we see how we treated environment. ", "If we can change the way we treated eachother(from bad to good), we can change the world for good."
Awesome video. 👍👍😇
This is so amazing, absolutely my favorite TED video I've seen so far.
Aw man, I really needed to hear this! :) I've been on the cusp of a big life decision for the past year, and I've been hesitant to leave behind the security that I've built up for myself, over the course of my entire life. But I know that I need to, in order to become the person that I want to become in the end. And I've been feeling as though remaining in this secure bubble that I've created for myself, has actually been hindering me. It's been making me anxious and restless and helpless. I've become comfortable and dependent on my current situation, and have become controlling an uneasy, in that I don't want it to change. But those very feelings are the reason I NEED it to change. To be comfortable with change, and to be comfortable to break down those walls that I've built up for myself, to be able to step beyond them to become the person that I truly want to be. It may be difficult, but it will make me happier, in the long run! Thank you! This is exactly what I needed to hear! :)
Slush Guppy I came across your comment and I must know, did you make the big step? Whatever you decided I hope it went well!
Slush Guppy me too 💚
You can do anything if you believe in yourself man, make the move
i really loved this man
a wonderful talk. and a really great message. never seen anything like it. we should strive to be a little bit like him, while striving to "be" ourselves.
who would dislike this? really i met the man and it was amazing! he is a huge inspiration, a very king and very funny man. and for me it was an honor
I went through a very short no-talking phase when I was 11. Later I decided I like talking because it helps me connect to other people.
I really enjoyed this talk. He's right about the silence: it's a moving experience. I haven't really realized it before. I wouldn't necessarily define me as a quiet person, but I am often in a sort of silent mood, and you're able to hear things and understand others in a way you didn't before.
Amen! You encourage me!
Holy crap that was amazing! That's one of the best TED talks ever.
Yeah
Sou brasileiro e gostei muito da sua história e vou mim incentivar em você, não ficando sem falar por 17 anos mais por ser uma pessoa que não desiste, uma pessoa esforçada.
Incrível incrível sua história
truly inspiring, and really get you thinking about the importance and necessity of language, or possibly the true lack there of
I found comfort in silence when I was still a child full of questions and some hurts and perhaps would be on it again in this season but not necessarily because of pain.
Silence Is Like The EARTH, IT SPEAKS VOLUMES; UNIVERSAL GALACTIC SOUNDS...
amazing - loved this talk even now , it's so relevant.. to listen
incredible... for 20 minutes i just couldnt take my eyes off the screen. DAMN!
It's interesting to see how different a lifestyle John has pursued and how he has become.
I can't help wonder how he ate and survived for those 7 years walking across the Continent.
Thank you.
I'm impressed with him, and I feel there is something to learn, but I feel I need to feel for myself the passion to change in such a way.
Incredible story. I'm inspired, I just don'k know how or do what end. Time will tell!
InsectRoyalty 8 years later... Did you find the passion to change?
John Francis's book Planet Walker is amazing. What an inspirational man and story!
Profound. Thank you 🙏🏼💜
I would recommend his book!
The description of this video holds nothing to how real and important this talk really is.
it's great to be able to learn from this incredible story!
Thank you @JohnFrancis I love travelling from my inner heart. So TED talks, like John Francis walks the Earth, really give me a big image what the human can really have done on our mother earth. In one life, what it really matters if I could keep walking on.
Instead of voting you down like a lot of other people, I think that's a valid question. What is the point? Well, I'd say to try and consider how 'life would be like' if people were to take his approach, but I too have the same skepticism. Why live for anyone but yourself? Giving to yourself, in my opinion; is essential, before you can give to others. It's really not up to anyone else but you to come up with the 'point' of changing. No one else can convince you to change, it's up to you.
very inspiring story
great video, everyone should see this
hes saying that, the way to make people start caring about the enviroment is to make them care about eachother, however hard that may be.
If you think of us as indifferent to eachother, we use pollution and ignorance of the damage as a metaphorical attack on eachother. We dont care about how we damage eachother, hence we dont care that we are polluting and harming eachother
this is the coolest person ever
breathtaking!
wonderful..
I watched this because I want to make video games, but I am struggling with making art, using tools that are produced in sweatshops--computers, tablets, VR headsets, etc. But my original desire was to speak to people today, and over and above what I feel I need to teach people about my experience and ideas, I want to give them a mirror in which they can see clearly. So if that means making games that simply make people take a look at themselves, then I will have fulfilled my desire...
I don't necessarily understand you, but you shared your vision. Sounds like a good plan to me.
@@wayfaringstranger8430 Sorry, I didn't explain fully, I was talking about feeling guilty about the environment/sweatshop workers producing computers that people play video games on.
So powerful
Oh wow. I was born and raised in Missoula Montana and am still here
Astounding, Possibly my favorite TED yet.
I never comment on videos. This was amazing,
this is so heavy! thank you!
Dominique Stromer 💛💛💛💛💛
Serious?
speechless xx
The Hero's Journey
Saw him in Minneapolis at the U of MN. Great, great storyteller and speaker, especially live. And of course, the banjo sounds better live as well - the video camera narrows and distorts the audio. I own the book now, it kicks ass. That's my two cents!
That was amazing.
Amphioxus no it wasn't
AMAZINGGGGG
Another beautiful speaker on this subject of treatent of ourselves an others is World Peace Diet.
Amazing.
Seriously. Just watch this video.
John Francis took a 17 yr. vow of silence and swore off motorized vehicles for 20 years after an oil spill in the SF Bay.
In that time, he earned a B.A., a Masters and his PhD, all while walking around the country.
He taught college while not speaking, and is one of the world's leading experts on on oil spills.
Wow, this guy has lived the life most of us dream of... or do in retirement. Well, with the talking.
Amazing
beautiful
What a legend!
I surely hope so!
amazing!!
I turned 16 the day you began to speak!
“On occasion, I would become so wedded to my thoughts, to some cascade of ideas that I actually lost touch with the details that my body was still gathering, from a place.
The ear heard the song of a vesper sparrow, the mind pleased with itself for identifying those notes as the song of a vesper sparrow was too occupied, with its summary to notice that the ear was still offering. The mind was making no use of the body's ability to be discerning, about sounds. So the mind's knowledge of the place, remains superficial.”
- Barry Lopez
Thank you, Santi2c!
Truly inspiring.
Rosanella :-)
awesome!
remarkable
Justin Bolz remarkable how stupid he is
wow I admired you
I have done it but not for so long. I still fast this way.
This would be an excellent challenge.
I don't know if I could do it for 24 hours.
GREAT ONE LOVE
Wow!
lets change then!
John Francis is the lorax.
I SPEAK FOR THE TREES
damn that was deep.
wow.
ROLE MODEL!
7thegirlinglass7 NOT
April 22. Earthday baby! And my name is Charles!
i saw him at the wilcox presentation 10/7/09! i asked him to sign my chest!
This man’s book...
Same here.
Great speach, i still don't get his father saying "thats one" he kep saying he'd explain it and musta missed it
I knew about John Francis and his story for years, but I wish I had posted this to share with everyone sooner. May you watch this man speak and be inspired. He lived out where I grew up in beautiful West Marin.
@epikteta you're kiddin, you couldn't just tell them that home was ahead of you? How far did you get from you're home. I wanna hear about this!
He's so nerdy and I look it!
There is a god. And he looks like you, and he looks like me too. If each person in this world begin to treat each life form with respect as each life form is a creation of god, then you will begin seeing the environment changing. Little by little, it will and it can change. As Mahatma Gandhi once said,"You must be the change you want to see in this world." You see we are all interconnected.Yes, the change is now here. More and more people are awakening to this message. It begins with the people.
cool guy
he started speaking again in 1990 and before that he was always writing so he was in touch with language.. just not verbally
👏
totally