WEBVTT
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Hi!
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Audience: Hi!
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So my name is Reba Elliott
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and I do work for an organization
called Lifting Voices.
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Our mission is to help young people
discover and share their voices
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in order to grow, find joy
and accomplish change.
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My work is sharing the power of words
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and I really know that
words have big power.
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Because, look at this!
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Here I am, standing, talking
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and there you are,
hundreds and hundreds of you,
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listening!
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We've got something going here already
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and we did it through nothing more
than a couple of simple spoken words.
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My day-to-day work is with young people
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and I find that the child's mentality
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which is fun and open and explorative
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can be really useful.
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So I'd like to borrow
something from that mentality
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and play a game with you.
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Yeah!
(Laughter)
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This game is called "Let's make a story".
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We're going to make
a story together, you and I.
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And our story is about a word.
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Any word.
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A word that means something to you.
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A word you say all the time.
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Puppies?
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Ice-cream?
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Your favourite word.
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Think about it!
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Got something?
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Good.
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Your word represents language.
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Every word you've ever spoken
or heard, or read, or written.
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Every word you've ever
whispered or shouted.
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It's all there in your mind right now.
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Or we're going to give it a story.
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See what it can do.
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Every story has a journey
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and ours is no different.
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Our journey begins... at the beginning!
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Where language first begins.
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Babies.
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That's my son.
(Audience: aaahhh)
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I know. Perfect reaction. Yeah.
(Laughter)
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So his name's August
and he's 2 years old.
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And like any parent can tell you,
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watching language develop
in a child is miraculous.
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When August was first born
all he could do was mew.
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Like a little cat.
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Just "mew".
(Laughter)
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And now 2 short years later,
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he has this amazing ability
to name his world.
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He has a name for things he sees
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and a name for things he does.
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And what's even more amazing
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is that he can put
those words together
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to make thing happen.
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He can say...
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My son has a very deep voice
for a 2-year-old.
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(Laughter)
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So he'll say:
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"Mama, throw the blue ball!"
(Laughter)
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And the ball will be thrown.
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Here it goes!
(Laughter)
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By naming his world,
he begins to transcend it.
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If he can get the right words
in the right order,
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he can make things happen.
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I don't know what my son's
favourite word will be when he grows up,
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but I can predict that his mind,
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which is richly familiar
with this practice of making things
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happen through words,
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is going be a good home for it.
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I know another toddler.
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I work for this toddler.
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Her name is Erica.
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And like my son she's 2.
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But they are different in a big way
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because this 2-year-old cannot speak.
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She can make sounds.
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She can groan.
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I think it's really important
that you know
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there's no physical cause
for her inability to speak.
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She doesn't have a cognitive disorder,
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she doesn't have an oral disorder.
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This little girl can't speak
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because no one cares
about her enough
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to speak to her or listen to her.
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She can't name her world
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because no one cared about
her enough to name it for her.
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Unlike my son,
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she can't make things happen
through her words.
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I remember I was reading
a book with her one day
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and I looked at her
and this light came on in her eyes.
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I remember it was a book
about a little baby getting dressed.
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And I looked at Erica
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and this huge smile broke over her face
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and she looked up at me and said:
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"Shoe!"
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And now every time I see her
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she runs to me and she pulls me down
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and she points at my shoes
and she points at her shoes
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and she says: "Shoe!"
(Laughter)
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"Shoe-shoe-shoe-shoe-shoe!"
(Laughter)
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And that's all.
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Think about your word.
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Let's give your word a story.
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In which toddler
would you like its journey to begin?
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2 children.
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2 little humans.
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In which mouth will your word thrive?
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We all have times when we're speechless.
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Times when a notion just hits us
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and we can't transfer
that impulse to language.
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When I look at August or I look at Erica,
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the word "love" doesn't really suffice.
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And in terrible times too, words fail us.
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I've experienced violence,
drug addiction...
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What I've gotta tell you?
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Fear?
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Despair?
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It really doesn't cover it.
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And I'm sure the same is true for you.
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If you think about the most wonderful
and the bleakest times in your life,
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you'll be really hard pressed
to put names to them.
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Even your favourite word.
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The one that we're so tenderly guiding
through this little journey.
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It's just a label.
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It's just a sign post.
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Pointing the way to your
ineffable experience
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of puppies or ice-cream, or whatever.
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So why do we do it?
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Why do we put labels to experience?
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Some people say that
language is an instinct.
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That all of us, me standing here,
you sitting there,
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big smart adults, we're all
just a step above my toddler.
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We put names to things
to transcend them.
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We put the names in the sentences
and we make the sentences go.
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Love is a many-splendored thing.
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We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
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We make worlds happen through words.
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It's a big deal
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and it's a big part of our human story.
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Here's a big word:
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civilization.
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Civilization in general
was carried on the backs of our words.
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Think of our forebears.
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There they are.
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Inventing irrigation,
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developing systems of exchange,
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creating new and much easier
modes of survival.
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Out of nothing.
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Out of the simple raw materials
of their landscapes and their minds.
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Words were there.
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Words allowed those ideas
to be shared efficiently.
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And even more importantly,
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words allowed those ideas
to be shared abstractly.
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Think about it.
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Our forebears would have had
a really hard time pantomiming
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annual,
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flood,
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or
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currency.
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Without words, for the pure ideas
that grow to our world,
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we can't manipulate them.
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We can't make them
into something brighter and better.
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This is the neighbourhood
where Erica lives.
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This neighbourhood is located 3 miles...
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it's 1 hour's walk from
where we're standing.
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Her neighbourhood is our neighbourhood.
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1/3 of the adults in DC
are functionally illiterate.
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How will they tell us their ideas?
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How will they tell us about
the next irrigation or currency?
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We need their help to shape the ideas
that will transform our world.
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Somewhere in your life
there's a young person.
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Maybe it's your child,
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maybe it's a kid down a block.
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Take time today to think about
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how you want your word
to live in that child.
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Make sure he can say shoe
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and ball, and love.
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Make sure he can help us
shape our human story.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)