Why We Are Here

The semester starts so fast and with it classes and workshops entered into quickly. Later reflecting I think, wait a minute I should have had some kind of welcoming or motivational speech to give – first thing. It's always a failing of not having time to fully thinking things through. So belatedly here it is.

Some time from now you will be asked a question. It may be eight years or fourteen months or two decades, but it will come. It will be the most important question you will ever answer. You may not have studied it in school. You may never have thought about it at all. You'll think, why are they asking me, but they are and you'll need to answer, because there'll be no one else.

Your response will save the life of your friend, your lover, your next door neighbor, the person at work you hate. Your answer will save the company you work for, the neighborhood you live in, your daughters school, the little park just down the street, New England.

The person who asks you the question will be your younger sister, the guy in the elevator, your best friend, the woman in the car across the street. They'll be crying, depressed, fearful, in pain, desperate, stoic, angry, or simply have a blank look on their face. You won't have time to look it up, ask someone else, talk it over, think it through or read about it. Suddenly everything will stop. People will turn to hear your answer. Faces will lift. It will get a little quiet.

The question you will be asked is, "what should we do?" Your answer will change the course of your life and the lives of others for better or for worse. Will you be able to give an answer?

Is this likely to happen? Maybe. But here's the "really scary" version – perhaps more likely is that no one will ask at all; that people will stand there frozen, uncertain, bewildered and wait for something to happen. That's when, unasked, you have to step forward and say what you think we should do. That's when you need to lead. Answering the unasked question is the hardest thing in the world to do and the most important, but to be able to do it you have to practice – starting now.

So that's why we're really here, to get you to a point, much later in life, where you could answer that question or more importantly the unasked question. If you want to save the world you need to get ready. You may not think you're up to it, but everyone here is. However, if you're just here to only have a good time, later you're not going to be much help to anyone because you won't be able to answer the question – you didn't practice. You'll have no idea and the unasked question will just hang there, unanswered.

gunther