Greg & I went to Boston last week for the Q Conference. Q's aim is to "Stay curious. Think well. Advance good."
Speaker after brilliant speaker gave voice to their stories: a journalist covering ISIS, university leaders, artists & performers, those on the front lines of racial reconciliation & immigration, entrepreneurs, activists, health practitioners, authors, and thinkers. My brain is still throbbing from each of their contributions. I took notes as fast as I could keep up.
A potent moment for me was a talk given by Boston marathon bombing surviver, Jeff Bauman. Jeff lost both legs from the bomb and walked onstage with his two prosthetic limbs. Seeing him in the city where the bombing occurred, blocks away from the courthouse where the sentencing of the bomber was ongoing. Hearing him speak was deeply moving.
Jeff shared that he experienced some discouragement as he learned to walk again with prosthetic limbs. Part of his story was when some Marines came into his hospital room because, they too, had lost their legs to war. They told him he would walk again but Jeff felt he wouldn't because they were big tough Marines and he is just a regular guy. Jeff laughed as he told us the Marines grabbed him by his shirt, pointed at his face and told him "HE WILL WALK AGAIN" and Jeff was forced to agree with them.
I was introduced to Land of Thousand Hills Coffee, whose fairly traded coffee benefit communities in Rwanda.
I was also introduced to fashionABLE and scored a lovely new scarf named after one of the women they partner with.
There's so much more I could say about each speaker and each experience, and about each incredible person who attended the conference, but my brain is still absorbing it all. But here's what I can say: I want to be the kind of person who thinks deeply about shaping culture and has the courage to step out.
