![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/papalTedTalk.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOK that was only in my head and my graphics program.<\/p>\n
His real TED talk can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n And here is the transcript from the Vatican\u2019s site.<\/p>\n VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS [26 APRIL 2017]<\/p>\n Good evening \u2013 or, good morning, I am not sure what time it is there.<\/p>\n Regardless of the hour, I am thrilled to be participating in your conference.<\/p>\n I very much like its title \u2013 \u201cThe Future You\u201d \u2013 because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a \u201cyou.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Future You:\u201d the future is made of yous, it is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others.<\/p>\n Quite a few years of life have strengthened my conviction that each and everyone\u2019s existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions.<\/p>\n As I meet, or lend an ear to those who are sick, to the migrants who face terrible hardships in search of a brighter future, to prison inmates who carry a hell of pain inside their hearts, and to those, many of them young, who cannot find a job, I often find myself wondering: \u201cWhy them and not me?\u201d<\/p>\n I, myself, was born in a family of migrants; my father, my grandparents, like many other Italians, left for Argentina and met the fate of those who are left with nothing. I could have very well ended up among today\u2019s \u201cdiscarded\u201d people.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s why I always ask myself, deep in my heart: \u201cWhy them and not me?\u201d<\/p>\n First and foremost, I would love it if this meeting could help to remind us that we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent \u201cI,\u201d separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t think about it often, but everything is connected, and we need to restore our connections to a healthy state. Even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancor that is only going to hurt me, are all instances of a fight that I carry within me, a flare deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it goes up in flames, leaving only ashes behind.<\/p>\n Many of us, nowadays, seem to believe that a happy future is something impossible to achieve. While such concerns must be taken very seriously, they are not invincible. They can be overcome when we don\u2019t lock our door to the outside world.<\/p>\n Happiness can only be discovered as a gift of harmony between the whole and each single component. Even science \u2013 and you know it better than I do \u2013 points to an understanding of reality as a place where every element connects and interacts with everything else.<\/p>\n And this brings me to my second message. How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion. How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.<\/p>\n How wonderful would it be if solidarity, this beautiful and, at times, inconvenient word, were not simply reduced to social work, and became, instead, the default attitude in political, economic and scientific choices, as well as in the relationships among individuals, peoples and countries.<\/p>\n Only by educating people to a true solidarity will we be able to overcome the \u201cculture of waste,\u201d which doesn\u2019t concern only food and goods but, first and foremost, the people who are cast aside by our techno-economic systems which, without even realizing it, are now putting products at their core, instead of people.<\/p>\n Solidarity is a term that many wish to erase from the dictionary. Solidarity, however, is not an automatic mechanism. It cannot be programmed or controlled. It is a free response born from the heart of each and everyone. Yes, a free response!<\/p>\n When one realizes that life, even in the middle of so many contradictions, is a gift, that love is the source and the meaning of life, how can they withhold their urge to do good to another fellow being?<\/p>\n In order to do good, we need memory, we need courage and we need creativity. And I know that TED gathers many creative minds. Yes, love does require a creative, concrete and ingenious attitude. Good intentions and conventional formulas, so often used to appease our conscience, are not enough. Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the other is not a statistic or a number. The other has a face. The \u201cyou\u201d is always a real presence, a person to take care of.<\/p>\n There is a parable Jesus told to help us understand the difference between those who\u2019d rather not be bothered and those who take care of the other. I am sure you have heard it before. It is the Parable of the Good Samaritan.<\/p>\n When Jesus was asked: \u201cWho is my neighbor?\u201d – namely, \u201cWho should I take care of?\u201d – he told this story, the story of a man who had been assaulted, robbed, beaten and abandoned along a dirt road. Upon seeing him, a priest and a Levite, two very influential people of the time, walked past him without stopping to help. After a while, a Samaritan, a very much despised ethnicity at the time, walked by. Seeing the injured man lying on the ground, he did not ignore him as if he weren\u2019t even there. Instead, he felt compassion for this man, which compelled him to act in a very concrete manner. He poured oil and wine on the wounds of the helpless man, brought him to a hostel and paid out of his pocket for him to be assisted.<\/p>\n The story of the Good Samaritan is the story of today\u2019s humanity. People\u2019s paths are riddled with suffering, as everything is centered around money, and things, instead of people. And often there is this habit, by people who call themselves \u201crespectable,\u201d of not taking care of the others, thus leaving behind thousands of human beings, or entire populations, on the side of the road.<\/p>\n Fortunately, there are also those who are creating a new world by taking care of the other, even out of their own pockets. Mother Teresa actually said: \u201cOne cannot love, unless it is at their own expense.\u201d<\/p>\n We have so much to do, and we must do it together. But how can we do that with all the evil we breathe every day?<\/p>\n Thank God, no system can nullify our desire to open up to the good, to compassion and to our capacity to react against evil, all of which stem from deep within our hearts.<\/p>\n Now you might tell me, \u201cSure, these are beautiful words, but I am not the Good Samaritan, nor Mother Teresa of Calcutta.\u201d On the contrary: we are precious, each and every one of us. Each and every one of us is irreplaceable in the eyes of God. Through the darkness of today\u2019s conflicts, each and every one of us can become a bright candle, a reminder that light will overcome darkness, and never the other way around.<\/p>\n To Christians, the future does have a name, and its name is Hope. Feeling hopeful does not mean to be optimistically na\u00efve and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing. Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn\u2019t lock itself into darkness, that doesn\u2019t dwell on the past, does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow.<\/p>\n Hope is the door that opens onto the future. Hope is a humble, hidden seed of life that, with time, will develop into a large tree. It is like some invisible yeast that allows the whole dough to grow, that brings flavor to all aspects of life.<\/p>\n And it can do so much, because a tiny flicker of light that feeds on hope is enough to shatter the shield of darkness. A single individual is enough for hope to exist.<\/p>\n And that individual can be you. And then there will be another \u201cyou,\u201d and another \u201cyou,\u201d and it turns into an \u201cus.\u201d And so, does hope begin when we have an \u201cus?\u201d No. Hope began with one \u201cyou.\u201d When there is an \u201cus,\u201d there begins a revolution.<\/p>\n The third message I would like to share today is, indeed, about revolution: the revolution of tenderness.<\/p>\n What is tenderness? It is the love that comes close and becomes real. It is a movement that starts from our heart and reaches the eyes, the ears and the hands. Tenderness means to use our eyes to see the other, our ears to hear the other, to listen to the children, the poor, those who are afraid of the future. To listen also to the silent cry of our common home, of our sick and polluted earth. Tenderness means to use our hands and our heart to comfort the other, to take care of those in need.<\/p>\n Tenderness is the language of the young children, of those who need the other. A child\u2019s love for mom and dad grows through their touch, their gaze, their voice, their tenderness. I like when I hear parents talk to their babies, adapting to the little child, sharing the same level of communication. This is tenderness: being on the same level as the other.<\/p>\n God himself descended into Jesus to be on our level. This is the same path the Good Samaritan took. This is the path that Jesus himself took. He lowered himself, he lived his entire human existence practicing the real, concrete language of love.<\/p>\n Yes, tenderness is the path of choice for the strongest, most courageous men and women. Tenderness is not weakness; it is fortitude. It is the path of solidarity, the path of humility.<\/p>\n Please, allow me to say it loud and clear: the more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people, the more responsible you are to act humbly. If you don\u2019t, your power will ruin you, and you will ruin the other.<\/p>\n There is a saying in Argentina: \u201cPower is like drinking gin on an empty stomach.\u201d You feel dizzy, you get drunk, you lose your balance, and you will end up hurting yourself and those around you, if you don\u2019t connect your power with humility and tenderness.<\/p>\n Through humility and concrete love, on the other hand, power \u2013 the highest, the strongest one \u2013 becomes a service, a force for good.<\/p>\n The future of humankind isn\u2019t exclusively in the hands of politicians, of great leaders, of big companies. Yes, they do hold an enormous responsibility. But the future is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognize the other as a \u201cyou\u201d and themselves as part of an \u201cus.\u201d<\/p>\n We all need each other.<\/p>\n And so, please, think of me as well with tenderness, so that I can fulfill the task I have been given for the good of the other, of each and every one, of all of you, of all of us.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I heard the Pope had released a TED talk, I was not expecting this. OK that was only in my head and my graphics program. His real TED talk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15808"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15812,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808\/revisions\/15812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Video message of His Holiness Pope Francis on the occasion of the TED conference in Vancouver<\/a><\/h1>\n
\nON THE OCCASION OF THE TED CONFERENCE IN VANCOUVER<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n