“Whenever I am asked to speak to young people, I feel like I am an old elephant who has been asked to speak to young elephants on the subject of how to be an elephant. But there are two problems. First, I know nothing about contemporary young elephant experience. I did not grow up with the internet in my pocket. I do not understand the challenges you face or the joys you share when you Snap each other or BeReal or whatever it is you do… But there is also a second problem with trying to tell you how to be an elephant, which is that I do not know how to be an elephant. What is even happening? Am I in a body, or am I a body? Why is the universe so big? Scratch that. Why is there a universe? …It’s so weird that I think sometimes we must turn away from its weirdness in order to go on, the way cannot stare at the sun for too long without being blinded by its life. So yeah, I don’t know how to be an elephant.”
This excerpt was the introduction of a speech given by world-renowned author and activist John Green on an otherwise generic Thursday evening at Winona State University. Green’s presence was part of the Duran Family Speaker Series; a series of speakers that was founded by Winona State graduate Denis Duran to present events that provide unique cultural enrichment and educational opportunities for campus communities.
Throughout his speech, Green discussed the difficulties of being a human, or rather, an elephant. A central theme of his message was the awareness of the power that humans hold, but the knowledge that the power we hold is not enough to save our kind from suffering. Green considers this to be quite the pickle.
“We are powerful. Probably too powerful, but we are not powerful enough,” Green said. “We are powerful enough to reshape our planet, but not powerful enough to choose how we reshape it. We are powerful enough to kill fellow humans by the millions through war and neglect, but not powerful to save those we love from suffering. And so how can we live in this moment? It feels so precarious, so fragile, so brief. And that’s the pickle as I understand it.”
So how can we live in the moment and ignore the problems we see? How can we live in a world where things happening around us drain us and leave us feeling hopeless? Green mentioned that he is able to find meaning through focusing on personal aspects of impersonal problems.
“I have found much fulfillment and meaning in focusing on the individual, because the closer we can get to the ground of a problem, the more solvable the problem becomes, and that is my real advise in the field of elephant studies,” Green said. “Try to choose problems that are solvable and that lend themselves to your curiosities and talents, and the get as close to the problem as possible.”
This advice struck audience members, as did the rest of Green’s speech. He spoke of tuberculosis deaths, the apocalypse, social issues that plague our world and much more. Third year Winona State student, Reagan Roesler, was among audience members who found his speech to be profound and meaningful.
“My favorite part of the event was his opening speech,” Roesler said. “He took a turn that I’m sure very few of [the audience members] expected him to take, but it was poignant and honest which I appreciated.”
Green’s earnest style is well known by fans, both through his writing and his speaking. This appeals to many fans, Kash Hartsuiker being one of them. In fact, the impact that Green has had on Hartsuiker is so great that it prompted him to drive more than three hours to attend the event at Winona State.
“My best friends from high school go to college at Winona, so I went to visit them and saw the poster advertising John Green’s event. I bought tickets on the spot and drove three hours to hear him speak on the day of the event,” Hartsuiker said. “It was way more than worth it to me. Being able to hear my favorite author speak was incredible.”
For audience members like Roesler and Hartsuiker, the message that Green delivered to Winona State students and the greater Winona community left them with a greater sense of hope. The awareness that there is so much bad in the world is a paralyzing realization for many, but Green encouraged audience members to reframe the way they look at problems and readjust the way they help solve them. The final message that Green left audience members with encouraged them to look at the fragility of their existence and not feel defeated by it, but rather, motivated by it. This, he considered, to be his parting advice to the audience of elephants.
“Someday, we will no longer have the opportunity to work together to bring about a world where everyone can be treated as fully human by the social order. Someday, we will lose the opportunity to make progress on child mortality and to affect the individual lives of people who are dying of tuberculosis in Tondo and elsewhere, but not today,” Green said. “Today we are fortunate, because we have work to do. We must not allow the cacophonous fears of what’s coming to drown out the cries of what is already here.”
