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