Director of Communications, Timothy Kurek, with Barbara Walters before his interview on ABC's The View It is a catchphrase and a mantra that gets repeated around the Developing America office a lot while we work. It is also a two-fold question, with significant nuance. The first aspect involves developing America, the ever-evolving country in which many of you reading this live. It is a broad question, highly subjective, and for many, highly personal, that asks what is it that you are doing to better your community, your city, and ultimately the country? The second idea begs the question, are you developing, American? That is to say, are you proactively working to better yourself, to educate yourself and apply your own personal experiences, so there can be a furthering of your own identity as global citizen? If we develop ourselves in this way, the very extension of that growth is that we proactively better our communities, our country, and even our world.
My name is Timothy Kurek, and my life was irrevocably changed several years ago when I met first met Lucas Olson. It was October 2012, and Lucas was preparing for a bike trip down the Pan-American Highway. That same week, I was also about to leave on a life-changing trip. The next morning I would fly to New York City to begin the press tour for my first major book, The Cross in the Closet. Lucas showed up to the Hawthorne Theater on that chilly October evening, and we talked about the roads we were both traveling, lamenting that it would be nice one day if we were able to work on a project together.
My name is Timothy Kurek, and my life was irrevocably changed several years ago when I met first met Lucas Olson. It was October 2012, and Lucas was preparing for a bike trip down the Pan-American Highway. That same week, I was also about to leave on a life-changing trip. The next morning I would fly to New York City to begin the press tour for my first major book, The Cross in the Closet. Lucas showed up to the Hawthorne Theater on that chilly October evening, and we talked about the roads we were both traveling, lamenting that it would be nice one day if we were able to work on a project together.
As fate would have it, both of our journeys changed our lives to such an extent that where our paths were once incompatible, the lessons we learned brought us back to each other serendipitously. Last spring Lucas was in town visiting family before heading to Central America for work. We decided to meet up in Tacoma, Washington and were both pleasantly surprised to find that we were finally asking the same questions. How can we affect change in the world in a practical way, and how can we share the life changing experiences we’ve already lived with other young people so we inspire others towards a common goal?
Growing up, I was raised a hyper-conservative, fundamentalist, Bible-belt Christian and for the past several years have worked as an ally/activist in the LGBT’s struggle for equal rights. But as I have traveled, keynoting conferences in Australia and Italy, Canada and here in the United States, I realized that the lessons I learned and documented in my book are much more broadly applicable towards society as a whole. My “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” experiment has become a lesson in intentional empathy that I know I want to dive into and explore on a much deeper level.
Last spring, Lucas and I spent hours discussing the different ways in which we had arrived at the same existential question—he from the road of Academia and me, from the road of immersive experience. And it was over these hours of conversations that his brainchild, Developing America, was born. If Developing America is the journey, Lucas is Frodo, and by some beautiful twist of fate I have lucked into the role of Samwise.
Renowned author Anaïs Nin said “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” I believe the mission of Developing America is to help inspire people to learn to see things are they actually are, and not just through the lens of their own individuality. And yes, it’s a very “millennial ideal,” as many older people have deemed it, but as it stands right now we are a part of the most apathetic generation that this country has ever seen. Only 25% of us own passports. A full 60% of us chose not to vote (for various reasons) in the last election. Why are we so apathetic? Is it that fewer and fewer are financially able to afford to travel, or afford college tuition and study abroad programs? Or are we simply just losing interest while we witness the ugliness of partisan politics broadcast on twenty-four hours on cable news?
I would place a bet with anyone on this one thing. The political and social arguments raging in D.C. are not going to determine change. Instead it will be the young people that bring stories back home of the beautiful people and work being done in other developing nations, with other ideals and other practices. The thing that is going to change this country, and our identity as American citizens, will be the moment we embrace our role as a part of a much larger narrative in the global story because sometimes the best role life affords is that of the supporting character.
Growing up, I was raised a hyper-conservative, fundamentalist, Bible-belt Christian and for the past several years have worked as an ally/activist in the LGBT’s struggle for equal rights. But as I have traveled, keynoting conferences in Australia and Italy, Canada and here in the United States, I realized that the lessons I learned and documented in my book are much more broadly applicable towards society as a whole. My “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” experiment has become a lesson in intentional empathy that I know I want to dive into and explore on a much deeper level.
Last spring, Lucas and I spent hours discussing the different ways in which we had arrived at the same existential question—he from the road of Academia and me, from the road of immersive experience. And it was over these hours of conversations that his brainchild, Developing America, was born. If Developing America is the journey, Lucas is Frodo, and by some beautiful twist of fate I have lucked into the role of Samwise.
Renowned author Anaïs Nin said “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” I believe the mission of Developing America is to help inspire people to learn to see things are they actually are, and not just through the lens of their own individuality. And yes, it’s a very “millennial ideal,” as many older people have deemed it, but as it stands right now we are a part of the most apathetic generation that this country has ever seen. Only 25% of us own passports. A full 60% of us chose not to vote (for various reasons) in the last election. Why are we so apathetic? Is it that fewer and fewer are financially able to afford to travel, or afford college tuition and study abroad programs? Or are we simply just losing interest while we witness the ugliness of partisan politics broadcast on twenty-four hours on cable news?
I would place a bet with anyone on this one thing. The political and social arguments raging in D.C. are not going to determine change. Instead it will be the young people that bring stories back home of the beautiful people and work being done in other developing nations, with other ideals and other practices. The thing that is going to change this country, and our identity as American citizens, will be the moment we embrace our role as a part of a much larger narrative in the global story because sometimes the best role life affords is that of the supporting character.
A few months ago I was asked to do a TEDx talk at the University of the Aegean. In April I fly to Athens, and from Athens take a boat to the island of Syros. I’ll be delivering the most important talk of my life, and I want to give you a sneak peak into the main question with which I hope to challenge the audience both present and online. I share this question now not only to get your feedback, but more importantly so we can begin a meaningful conversation.
How can the act of intentional empathy, the act of someone walking in the shoes of “the other,” really change a person and the community to which that person belongs? In other words, to the audience of this blog, are you developing America(n)?
How can the act of intentional empathy, the act of someone walking in the shoes of “the other,” really change a person and the community to which that person belongs? In other words, to the audience of this blog, are you developing America(n)?
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