Hello stranger
[Applause]
i’m sure you all have heard about
little red riding hood we all know the
kid’s story
right the good little girl who ends up
wandering into the forest all by herself
only to be met by a friendly wolf who
then eats her
and her grandmother too
when we’re kids we’re bombarded with all
kinds of stories that teach us
many different things and there’s often
a common theme
a common central message be kind to
others
heroes come in all shapes and sizes it’s
best to be honest
you know the score most of them
although maybe not all of them are good
moral lessons
but one of the most popular yet most
misunderstood
is the moral of little red riding hood
which is
don’t talk to strangers
the sad thing is in many parts of the
world we are raised to believe that
strangers are dangerous
that we shouldn’t trust them and that
they can cause harm to us
kids have had that message jumped into
them since day one
and it is good advice if you’re a kid
right sure but not if that stops you
from talking to
every stranger you meet because if it
does
you’re missing out big time
some of our greatest lessons in life are
learned by listening to stories
by learning from them and by learning
from those who tell them
so today i’d like to share my story
in fact i will be sharing four short
stories
that illustrate why we need to hang the
brainwashing out to dry
why we should talk to strangers and how
doing so
can lead to some amazing and sometimes
unexpected benefits
in this modern crazy digital world where
so many people just seem to be out for
themselves
isn’t it more important than ever that
we reach out to other people
and no siri and alexa don’t count
they say that about a third of teenagers
with smartphones
are to send more than a hundred messages
a day
and many of them almost all of them are
more likely to text their friends than
they are to talk to them face to face
kids spend hours every day on their
screens
engaging with ideas and others but
they are not communicating or improving
their interpersonal skills
and yet is there a more important skill
than the ability
to connect with real people in the real
world
face to face
probably not so then the question arises
who is it safe to talk to and who is it
not
and it’s an important one for young
people in particular
especially because of the fact that
people like me are
often in contact with more people in a
single
week than our ancestors were in their
entire
lifetime and we all know
there are some pretty undesirable people
out there especially ones on the
internet
right i see some of you in agreement
because you all know the dangers
but have you ever stopped to ask
yourself what are the benefits
so today i’m going to be telling you
guys about how the chocolate boxes
fishing trips poisonous snakes and
cockpits help
me to understand why talking to what i
call
sensibly selected strangers is a good
thing
and why you and all kids out there
should do it too
so let’s start off with the amazing tale
of vivian and the chocolate box
it was summer of 2018 when i was on a
long-haul flight from vancouver to hong
kong
a few hours in i had an insane craving
for chocolate
but that’s okay i’m a kid so
i got up my seat and walked to the back
of the plane where the cabin crew hid
all their munchies as i was happily
chomping away on a chocolate bar i
decided to start a conversation with
vivian
who are thought to be a sensibly
selected stranger
given the fact that i was on a plane and
she was a flight attendant
we started off by talking about my
chocolate addiction then quickly moved
on to her job
i was curious to know more as my dad
works in the airline industry
and i actually wanted to be a flight
attendant when i was a little boy
but not anymore which is good
because she made it sound terrible
up until that point i thought the life
of an international jet setting flight
attendant
was glamorous zooming off the exotic
destinations
landing for a few days between flights
so you could explore the amazing cities
enrich yourself with the culture and
sample their
finest cuisine but
she explained that her and her
colleagues were always so jet-lagged
that they had no choice
but to stay in their airport hotel sleep
throughout most of the day
then finally wake up only to order room
service
by the time they had actually recovered
and wanted to go sightseeing
the only site they saw was the inside of
an airplane for the next scheduled
flight
that was the nail in the cabin crew
coffin for me
as i took my seat i saw vivian expertly
multitasking her way down the other
aisle
balancing noodles making coffees and
dealing with a hundred and one other
things
so i was surprised when a few moments
later
she appeared from behind the curtains of
business class
whispered to me with a wink the words
shh
don’t tell then handed me a box of
luxury chocolates
so what was the benefit of striking up a
conversation with vivian
apart from the box of luxury business
class chocolates
well it challenged my assumptions
and taught me a new perspective i’d
assume since i was a little boy
that the life of a flight attendant was
very glamorous
but then i heard it directly from the
horse’s mouth
sorry vivian it wasn’t at
all i learned that
judging by assumptions and appearances
is short-sighted
and unwise and that’s an important
lesson for young people
these days now on to story number two
surprisingly i was on another flight
this time from las vegas to vancouver
when i had to get out of my window seat
into the aisle so i could use the
washroom
you can see the pattern unfolding here
now right
as i stepped over my mom into the aisle
i realized that the flight attendants
had pulled out their trolleys
on both sides i was stuck
but in the aisle opposite there was an
empty seat
next to a nice looking couple so i asked
if i could sit down for a moment just so
i wouldn’t have to trample over my mom
again so
soon they smiled and i sat down
and of course i started talking to them
turns out believe it or not they only
lived
15 minutes away from me i was like
what seriously
anyways when the nice lady’s husband
realized where i was from
he pulled out a fishing magazine he told
me all the best and secret places to go
for fishing
some expert tips on bait and stuff like
that
i was only supposed to sit there for a
few moments
until the flight attendants had whisked
their trolleys away
but i ended up sitting there for three
hours
the entire remainder of the flight
sorry mom i never did make it to the
washroom
but i did learn something from these
sensibly selected strangers
two things actually one
it really is a small world you never
know who you’re sitting next to unless
you
ask and two
the blakemore roadrunner is a
particularly inexpensive bait and as a
favorite
for all around fishing well i thought
that was interesting
now on to tale number three
just last summer i was back in vegas and
of course
we had to check out the grand canyon
we were staying at this super cool ranch
right slap bang
in the middle of the canyon it had this
gigantic patio off to one side
so one day i decided to go explore it
as i approached the patio a bright
yellow sign caught my attention
and it said beware of rattlesnakes
yup rattlesnakes not the perfect holiday
guest
luckily i didn’t see any but what i did
see
was a lovely british couple who i
thought to be sensibly selected
strangers they were standing around
filming some sort of time lapse video so
naturally
me being me i decided to go talk to them
snakes i hate them i said
in which they nodded in agreement
then they started telling me all about
the snake in
england called the adder which has
diamonds across its back
so you know that it’s dangerous
i could tell they were brits by their
accents so naturally
i decided to ask them about british type
things
like the famous british chef gordon
ramsay
they were surprised i even knew him and
even more surprised
when i said that i loved his shows and
can do
an uncannily accurate impression of the
mad british cook
so i did i did my impression of gordon
shouting in a suitably english accent
while jumping up and down what are you
an idiot sandwich
they laughed at me and had said that i
got the mad bit about right
but not so much about the british bit
and so what was the point of that little
meeting
well it’s always great talking to people
from different cultures
and i had learned a few things about the
uk that i wouldn’t have known before
i also learned that a career in acting
as well as in flight attending is
not for me and finally
story number four
last year i was on a flight from las
vegas to vancouver
in fact i was actually boarding a flight
to vancouver when i got the opportunity
of a lifetime
normally i fly on larger aircraft so
i board from the middle of the plane but
this time we boarded from the front
and there was my opportunity
when i say i want to talk about the
benefits of talking to strangers
that also includes requests you’ll be
surprised how nice most people are
as long as your request is a nice one
so i asked the lovely flight attendant
whether i could have a quick look in the
cockpit and take some pictures
like boys in many parts of the world i’d
always wanted to do it
but never got the chance
she disappeared into the cabin and came
back a few moments later
saying sure the captain would like to
meet you
i couldn’t believe my luck i spent
the next 10 minutes chatting with the
captain all about
the technology in the plane and how he
thought about being a pilot
it was great and all because
i made a simple honest request to a
lovely kindhearted person
who then asked another lovely
kindhearted person
who then agreed to help
so the lesson from this conversations
with strangers is obvious
most people aren’t nice most people are
friendly and most people are willing to
help
and you usually can learn a thing or two
as well
so there are some of my stories and
thoughts about why talking to strangers
is a great thing to do
but we do have to be careful no matter
who we are
most people are kind thoughtful helpful
generous and have your best interests at
heart
but of course there are those who aren’t
and don’t there’s no way in knowing for
sure
who’s who which is why we need to use
our common sense when deciding
many parents always feel nervous about
their kids talking to strangers
and that’s fine that’s normal that’s
what parents
should feel but parents also need to
understand that by allowing their kids
to step out of their comfort zone in a
safe environment
take calculated and sensible risk and
talk to people
they don’t know they can experience some
amazing and
unexpected benefits and learn some
important
life lessons everyone you encounter
knows something that you don’t when you
engage
in conversation keep your mind open and
be prepared
to learn and be amazed
and i hope that is what i have
demonstrated today
when you talk to strangers you are
making meaningful interruptions
into their daily lives and yours
you’re making unexpected connections
if you don’t talk to strangers you’re
missing out on
all of that talking to
sensibly selected strangers has given me
the confidence and courage
to stand here in front of all you
strangers
today and share my stories
and i hope that in the future you will
all have stories of your own
to share about how talking to strangers
changed your life
thank you
you