On this observance of the Day of Silence, I offer this TED Talk with John Francis, a personal hero of mine.
In case you are unfamiliar with him, after the S.F. oil spill of 1971, when over a half-million gallons of oil polluted our waters, John Francis completely gave up motorized vehicles (’72-’94) and walked much of the U.S. as well as South America.
For seventeen years, he also held silence (while earning several degrees, teaching, and becoming a UN Ambassador, etc.), which he describes in this TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/
I appreciate his message: “We are the environment, and how we treat each other is really how we are going to treat the environment.”
I also appreciate the questions he provokes in me–e.g., when is silence a way of giving voice? When is silence connecting and when is it divisive? If giving up motorized vehicles or holding silence (even for a day) is not an option for many of us, what can we do (or not do) to show our solidarity with the silenced and suffering dear neighbor, human and other-than-human?
