TED2008
John Francis: Walk the earth ... my 17-year vow of silence
Filmed:
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For almost three decades, John Francis has been a planetwalker, traveling the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 17 of those years without speaking). A funny, thoughtful talk with occasional banjo.
John Francis - Planet walker
John Francis walks the Earth, carrying a message of careful, truly sustainable development and respect for our planet. Full bio
John Francis walks the Earth, carrying a message of careful, truly sustainable development and respect for our planet. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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Thank you for being here.
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And I say "thank you for being here" because I was silent for 17 years.
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And the first words that I spoke were in Washington, D.C.,
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on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day.
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And my family and friends had gathered there to hear me speak.
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And I said, "Thank you for being here."
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My mother, out in the audience, she jumped up,
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"Hallelujah, Johnny’s talking!"
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(Laughter)
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Imagine if you were quiet for 17 years
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and your mother was out in the audience, say.
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My dad said to me, "That’s one" --
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I’ll explain that.
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But I turned around because I didn’t recognize where my voice was coming from.
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I hadn’t heard my voice in 17 years,
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so I turned around and I looked and I said,
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"God, who's saying what I’m thinking?"
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And then I realized it was me, you know, and I kind of laughed.
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And I could see my father: "Yeah, he really is crazy."
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Well, I want to take you on this journey.
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And the journey, I believe, is a metaphor for all of our journeys.
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Even though this one is kind of unusual,
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I want you to think about your own journey.
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My journey began in 1971
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when I witnessed two oil tankers collide beneath the Golden Gate,
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and a half a million gallons of oil spilled into the bay.
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It disturbed me so much
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that I decided that I was going to give up riding and driving in motorized vehicles.
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That’s a big thing in California.
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And it was a big thing in my little community of Point Reyes Station
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in Inverness, California, because there were only
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about 350 people there in the winter – this was back in '71 now.
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And so when I came in and I started walking around, people --
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they just knew what was going on.
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And people would drive up next to me
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and say, "John, what are you doing?"
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And I’d say, "Well, I’m walking for the environment."
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And they said, "No, you’re walking to make us look bad, right?
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You’re walking to make us feel bad."
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And maybe there was some truth to that,
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because I thought that if I started walking, everyone would follow.
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Because of the oil, everybody talked about the polllution.
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And so I argued with people about that, I argued and I argued.
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I called my parents up.
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I said, "I’ve given up riding and driving in cars."
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My dad said, "Why didn’t you do that when you were 16?"
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(Laughter)
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I didn’t know about the environment then.
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They’re back in Philadelphia.
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And so I told my mother, "I’m happy though, I’m really happy."
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She said, "If you were happy, son, you wouldn’t have to say it."
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Mothers are like that.
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And so, on my 27th birthday I decided, because I argued so much
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and I talk so much, that I was going to stop speaking
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for just one day -- one day -- to give it a rest.
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And so I did.
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I got up in the morning and I didn’t say a word.
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And I have to tell you, it was a very moving experience,
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because for the first time, I began listening -- in a long time.
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And what I heard, it kind of disturbed me.
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Because what I used to do, when I thought I was listening,
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was I would listen just enough to hear what people had to say
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and think that I could -- I knew what they were going to say,
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and so I stopped listening.
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And in my mind, I just kind of raced ahead
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and thought of what I was going to say back,
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while they were still finishing up.
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And then I would launch in.
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Well, that just ended communication.
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So on this first day I actually listened.
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And it was very sad for me,
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because I realized that for those many years I had not been learning.
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I was 27. I thought I knew everything.
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I didn’t.
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And so I decided I’d better do this for another day,
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and another day, and another day until finally,
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I promised myself for a year I would keep quiet
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because I started learning more and more and I needed to learn more.
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So for a year I said I would keep quiet,
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and then on my birthday I would reassess what I had learned
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and maybe I would talk again.
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Well, that lasted 17 years.
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Now during that time -- those 17 years -- I walked and I played the banjo
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and I painted and I wrote in my journal, and
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I tried to study the environment by reading books.
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And I decided that I was going to go to school. So I did.
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I walked up to Ashland, Oregon,
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where they were offering an environmental studies degree.
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It’s only 500 miles.
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And I went into the Registrar’s office and --
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"What, what, what?"
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I had a newspaper clipping.
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"Oh, so you really want to go to school here?
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You don’t …?
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We have a special program for you." They did.
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And in those two years, I graduated with my first degree -- a bachelor’s degree.
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And my father came out, he was so proud.
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He said, "Listen, we’re really proud of you son,
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but what are you going to do with a bachelor’s degree?
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You don’t ride in cars, you don’t talk --
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you’re going to have to do those things."
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(Laughter)
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I hunched my shoulder, I picked my backpack up again
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and I started walking.
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I walked all the way up to Port Townsend, Washington, where I built a wooden boat,
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rode it across Puget Sound
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and walked across Washington [to] Idaho and down to Missoula, Montana.
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I had written the University of Montana two years earlier
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and said I'd like to go to school there.
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I said I'd be there in about two years.
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(Laughter)
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And I was there. I showed up in two years and they --
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I tell this story because they really helped me.
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There are two stories in Montana.
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The first story is I didn’t have any money -- that’s a sign I used a lot.
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And they said,"Don't worry about that."
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The director of the program said, "Come back tomorrow."
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He gave me 150 dollars,
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and he said, "Register for one credit.
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You’re going to go to South America, aren’t you?"
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And I said --
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Rivers and lakes, the hydrological systems, South America.
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So I did that.
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He came back; he said to me,
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"OK John, now that you've registered for that one credit,
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you can have a key to an office, you can matriculate --
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you’re matriculating, so you can use the library.
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And what we’re going to do
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is, we’re going to have all of the professors allow you to go to class.
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They’re going to save your grade,
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and when we figure out how to get you the rest of the money,
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then you can register for that class and they’ll give you the grade."
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Wow, they don’t do that in graduate schools, I don’t think.
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But I use that story because they really wanted to help me.
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They saw that I was really interested in the environment,
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and they really wanted to help me along the way.
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And during that time, I actually taught classes without speaking.
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I had 13 students when I first walked into the class.
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I explained, with a friend who could interpret my sign language,
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that I was John Francis, I was walking around the world,
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I didn’t talk and this was the last time
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this person’s going to be here interpreting for me.
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All the students sat around and they went ...
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(Laughter)
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I could see they were looking for the schedule,
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to see when they could get out.
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They had to take that class with me.
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Two weeks later, everyone was trying to get into our class.
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And I learned in that class -- because I would do things like this ...
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and they were all gathered around, going, "What's he trying to say?"
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"I don't know, I think he's talking about clear cutting." "Yeah, clear cutting."
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"No, no, no, that's not clear cutting, that’s -- he's using a handsaw."
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"Well, you can’t clearcut with a ..."
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"Yes, you can clear cut ..."
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"No, I think he’s talking about selective forestry."
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Now this was a discussion class and we were having a discussion.
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I just backed out of that, you know, and I just kind of kept the fists from flying.
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But what I learned was that sometimes I would make a sign
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and they said things that I absolutely did not mean,
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but I should have.
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And so what came to me is, if you were a teacher
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and you were teaching, if you weren’t learning
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you probably weren’t teaching very well.
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And so I went on.
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My dad came out to see me graduate
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and, you know, I did the deal,
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and my father said, "We’re really proud of you son, but ... "
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You know what went on,
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he said, "You’ve got to start riding and driving and start talking.
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What are you going to do with a master’s degree?"
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I hunched my shoulder, I got my backpack
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and I went on to the University of Wisconsin.
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I spent two years there writing on oil spills.
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No one was interested in oil spills.
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But something happened --
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Exxon Valdez.
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And I was the only one in the United States writing on oil spills.
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My dad came out again.
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He said, "I don't know how you do this, son --
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I mean, you don't ride in cars, you don’t talk.
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My sister said maybe I should leave you alone,
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because you seem to be doing a lot better
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when you’re not saying anything."
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(Laughter)
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Well, I put on my backpack again.
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I put my banjo on and I walked all the way to the East Coast,
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put my foot in the Atlantic Ocean --
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it was seven years and one day it took me to walk across the United States.
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And on Earth Day, 1990 --
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the 20th anniversary of Earth Day -- that’s when I began to speak.
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And that’s why I said, "Thank you for being here."
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Because it's sort of like that tree in the forest falling;
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and if there's no one there to hear, does it really make a sound?
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And I’m thanking you, and I'm thanking my family
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because they had come to hear me speak.
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And that’s communication.
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And they also taught me about listening -- that they listened to me.
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And it’s one of those things that came out of the silence,
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the listening to each other.
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Really, very important --
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we need to listen to each other.
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Well, my journey kept going on.
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My dad said, "That’s one,"
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and I still didn’t let that go.
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I worked for the Coastguard, was made a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador.
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I wrote regulations for the United States --
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I mean, I wrote oil spill regulations.
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20 years ago, if someone had said to me,
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"John, do you really want to make a difference?"
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"Yeah, I want to make a difference."
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He said, "You just start walking east;
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get out of your car and just start walking east."
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And as I walked off a little bit, they'd say, "Yeah, and shut up, too."
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(Laughter)
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"You’re going to make a difference, buddy."
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How could that be, how could that be?
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How could doing such a simple thing like walking and not talking
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make a difference?
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Well, my time at the Coast Guard was a really good time.
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And after that -- I only worked one year --
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I said, "That's enough. One year's enough for me to do that."
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I got on a sailboat and I sailed down to the Caribbean,
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and walked through all of the islands, and to Venezuela.
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And you know, I forgot the most important thing,
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which is why I started talking, which I have to tell you.
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I started talking because I had studied environment.
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I’d studied environment at this formal level,
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but there was this informal level.
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And the informal level --
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I learned about people, and what we do and how we are.
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And environment changed from just being about trees and birds
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and endangered species to being about how we treated each other.
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Because if we are the environment,
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then all we need to do is look around us
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and see how we treat ourselves and how we treat each other.
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And so that’s the message that I had.
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And I said, "Well, I'm going to have to spread that message."
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And I got in my sailboat, sailed all the way through the Caribbean --
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it wasn't really my sailboat, I kind of worked on that boat --
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got to Venezuela and I started walking.
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This is the last part of this story, because it’s how I got here,
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because I still didn't ride in motorized vehicles.
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I was walking through El Dorado -- it's a prison town, famous prison,
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or infamous prison -- in Venezuela, and I don’t know what possessed me,
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because this was not like me.
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There I am, walking past the guard gate and the guard stops and says,
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"Pasaporte, pasaporte," and with an M16 pointed at me.
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And I looked at him and I said, "Passport, huh?
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I don't need to show you my passport. It’s in the back of my pack.
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I'm Dr. Francis; I'm a U.N. Ambassador and I'm walking around the world."
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And I started walking off.
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What possessed me to say this thing?
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The road turned into the jungle.
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I didn’t get shot.
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And I got to -- I start saying, "Free at last --
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thank God Almighty, I’m free at last."
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"What was that about," I’m saying. What was that about?
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It took me 100 miles to figure out that, in my heart, in me,
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I had become a prisoner.
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I was a prisoner and I needed to escape.
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The prison that I was in was the fact that I did not drive
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or use motorized vehicles.
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Now how could that be?
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Because when I started, it seemed very appropriate to me
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not to use motorized vehicles.
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But the thing that was different
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was that every birthday, I asked myself about silence,
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but I never asked myself about my decision to just use my feet.
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I had no idea I was going to become a U.N. Ambassador.
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I had no idea I would have a Ph.D.
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And so I realized that I had a responsibility to more than just me,
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and that I was going to have to change.
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You know, we can do it.
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I was going to have to change.
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And I was afraid to change,
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because I was so used to the guy who only just walked.
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I was so used to that person that I didn’t want to stop.
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I didn’t know who I would be if I changed.
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But I know I needed to.
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I know I needed to change, because it would be the only way
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that I could be here today.
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And I know that a lot of times
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we find ourselves in this wonderful place where we’ve gotten to,
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but there’s another place for us to go.
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And we kind of have to leave behind the security of who we’ve become,
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and go to the place of who we are becoming.
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And so, I want to encourage you to go to that next place,
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to let yourself out of any prison that you might find yourself in,
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as comfortable as it may be, because we have to do something now.
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We have to change now.
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As our former Vice President said,
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we have to become activists.
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So if my voice can touch you,
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if my actions can touch you, if my being here can touch you,
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please let it be.
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And I know that all of you have touched me
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while I’ve been here.
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So, let’s go out into the world
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and take this caring, this love, this respect
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that we’ve shown each other right here at TED,
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and take this out into the world.
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Because we are the environment,
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and how we treat each other
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is really how we’re going to treat the environment.
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So I want to thank you for being here
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and I want to end this in five seconds of silence.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Francis - Planet walkerJohn Francis walks the Earth, carrying a message of careful, truly sustainable development and respect for our planet.
Why you should listen
One day in 1983, John Francis stepped out on a walk. For the next 22 years, he trekked and sailed around North and South America, carrying a message of respect for the Earth -- for 17 of those years, without speaking. During his monumental, silent trek, he earned
an MA in environmental studies and a PhD in land resources.
Today his Planetwalk foundation consults on sustainable development and works with educational groups to teach kids about the environment.
John Francis | Speaker | TED.com