0:00:02.014,0:00:03.976
When I think about dreams,

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like many of you,

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I think about this picture.

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I was eight when I watched Neil Armstrong

0:00:12.899,0:00:16.113
step off the Lunar Module[br]onto the surface of the Moon.

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I had never seen anything like it before,

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and I've never seen[br]anything like it since.

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We got to the Moon for one simple reason:

0:00:28.637,0:00:31.943
John Kennedy committed us to a deadline.

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And in the absence of that deadline,

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we would still be dreaming about it.

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Leonard Bernstein said two things[br]are necessary for great achievement:

0:00:43.901,0:00:47.366
a plan and not quite enough time.

0:00:47.390,0:00:50.520
(Laughter)

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Deadlines and commitments

0:00:56.369,0:01:01.382
are the great and fading[br]lessons of Apollo.

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And they are what give the word[br]"moonshot" its meaning.

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And our world is in desperate need[br]of political leaders

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willing to set bold deadlines

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for the achievement of daring dreams[br]on the scale of Apollo again.

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When I think about dreams,

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I think about the drag queens[br]of LA and Stonewall

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and millions of other people[br]risking everything

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to come out when that[br]was really dangerous,

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and of this picture of the White House[br]lit up in rainbow colors,

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yes --

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(Applause) --

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celebrating America's gay and lesbian[br]citizens' right to marry.

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It is a picture that in my wildest dreams[br]I could never have imagined

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when I was 18

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and figuring out that I was gay

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and feeling estranged from my country

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and my dreams because of it.

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I think about this picture of my family

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that I never dreamed I could ever have --

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(Applause) --

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and of our children holding this headline

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I never dreamed could ever be printed[br]about the Supreme Court ruling.

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We need more of the courage[br]of drag queens and astronauts.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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But I want to talk[br]about the need for us to dream

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in more than one dimension,

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because there was something about Apollo[br]that I didn't know when I was 8,

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and something about organizing[br]that the rainbow colors over.

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Of the 30 astronauts in the original[br]Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs,

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only seven marriages survived.

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Those iconic images of the astronauts[br]bouncing on the Moon

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obscure the alcoholism[br]and depression on Earth.

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Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk,

0:03:17.541,0:03:19.956
asked during the time of Apollo,

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"What can we gain by sailing to the moon

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if we are not able to cross the abyss[br]that separates us from ourselves?"

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And what can we gain by the right to marry

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if we are not able to cross the acrimony

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and emotional distance[br]that so often separates us from our love?

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And not just in marriage.

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I have seen the most hurtful, destructive,

0:03:52.231,0:03:56.429
tragic infighting in LGBT and AIDS

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and breast cancer and non-profit activism,

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all in the name of love.

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Thomas Merton also wrote[br]about wars among saints

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and that "there is a pervasive form[br]of contemporary violence

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to which the idealist[br]most easily succumbs:

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activism and overwork.

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The frenzy of our activism[br]neutralizes our work for peace.

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It destroys our own[br]inner capacity for peace."

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Too often our dreams become[br]these compartmentalized fixations

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on some future

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that destroy our ability to be present[br]for our lives right now.

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Our dreams of a better life[br]for some future humanity

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or some other humanity in another country

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alienate us from the beautiful[br]human beings sitting next to us

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at this very moment.

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Well, that's just the price[br]of progress, we say.

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You can go to the Moon

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or you can have stability[br]in your family life.

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And we can't conceive of dreaming[br]in both dimensions at the same time.

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And we don't set the bar[br]much higher than stability

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when it comes to our emotional life.

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Which is why our technology[br]for talking to one another

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has gone vertical,

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our ability to listen[br]and understand one another

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has gone nowhere.

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Our access to information[br]is through the roof,

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our access to joy, grounded.

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But this idea, that our present[br]and our future are mutually exclusive,

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that to fulfill our potential for doing[br]we have to surrender

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our profound potential for being,

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that the number of transistors[br]on a circuit can be doubled and doubled,

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but our capacity for compassion[br]and humanity and serenity and love

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is somehow limited

0:06:04.908,0:06:07.874
is a false and suffocating choice.

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Now, I'm not suggesting

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simply the uninspiring idea[br]of more work-life balance.

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What good is it for me to spend[br]more time with my kids at home

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if my mind is always somewhere else[br]while I'm doing it?

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I'm not even talking about mindfulness.

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Mindfulness is all of a sudden becoming[br]a tool for improving productivity.

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(Laughter)

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Right?

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I'm talking about dreaming

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as boldly in the dimension of our being

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as we do about industry and technology.

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I'm talking about[br]an audacious authenticity

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that allows us to cry with one another,

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a heroic humility that allows us[br]to remove our masks and be real.

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It is our inability[br]to be with one another,

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our fear of crying with one another,[br]that gives rise to so many

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of the problems we are frantically[br]trying to solve in the first place,

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from Congressional gridlock[br]to economic inhumanity.

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(Applause)

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I'm talking about what Jonas Salk[br]called an Epoch B,

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a new epoch in which we become[br]as excited about and curious about

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and scientific about[br]the development of our humanity

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as we are about the development[br]of our technology.

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We should not shrink from this opportunity

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simply because[br]we don't really understand it.

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There was a time[br]when we didn't understand space.

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Or because we're more used[br]to technology and activism.

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That is the very definition[br]of being stuck in a comfort zone.

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We are now very comfortable imagining[br]unimaginable technological achievement.

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In 2016, it is the dimension[br]of our being itself

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that cries out for its fair share[br]of our imagination.

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Now, we're all here to dream,

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but maybe if we're honest about it,

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each of us chasing our own dream.

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You know, looking at the name tags[br]to see who can help me with my dream,

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sometimes looking right through[br]one another's humanity.

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I can't be bothered with you right now.[br]I have an idea for saving the world.

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Right?

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(Laughter)

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Years ago, once upon a time,[br]I had this beautiful company

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that created these long journeys[br]for heroic civic engagement.

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And we had this mantra:

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"Human. Kind. Be Both."

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And we encouraged people to experiment[br]outrageously with kindness.

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Like, "Go help everybody[br]set up their tents."

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And there were a lot of tents.

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(Laughter)

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"Go buy everybody Popsicles."

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"Go help people fix their flat tires

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even though you know[br]the dinner line is going to get longer."

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And people really took us up on this,

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so much so that if you got[br]a flat tire on the AIDS ride,

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you had trouble fixing it, because there[br]were so many people there asking you

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if you needed help.

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For a few days,[br]for tens of thousands of people,

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we created these worlds

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that everybody said were the way[br]they wish the world could always be.

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What if we experimented[br]with creating that kind of world

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these next few days?

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And instead of going up to someone[br]and asking them, "What do you do?"

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ask them, "So what are your dreams?"

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or "What are your broken dreams?"

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You know, "TED."[br]Tend to Each other's Dreams.

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(Applause)

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Maybe it's "I want to stay sober"

0:10:06.203,0:10:08.869
or "I want to build[br]a tree house with my kid."

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You know, instead of going up[br]to the person everybody wants to meet,

0:10:12.728,0:10:14.485
go up to the person who is all alone

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and ask them if they want[br]to grab a cup of coffee.

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I think what we fear most

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is that we will be denied the opportunity[br]to fulfill our true potential,

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that we are born to dream

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and we might die[br]without ever having the chance.

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Imagine living in a world

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where we simply recognize[br]that deep, existential fear in one another

0:10:41.503,0:10:44.635
and love one another boldly[br]because we know

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that to be human[br]is to live with that fear.

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It's time for us to dream[br]in multiple dimensions simultaneously,

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and somewhere that transcends[br]all of the wondrous things

0:11:00.254,0:11:03.904
we can and will and must do

0:11:04.881,0:11:10.087
lies the domain of all[br]the unbelievable things we could be.

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It's time we set foot into that dimension

0:11:15.230,0:11:18.983
and came out about the fact[br]that we have dreams there, too.

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If the Moon could dream,

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I think that would be its dream for us.

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It's an honor to be with you.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)