Shimon Schocken's rides of hope

36,023 views ・ 2010-11-17

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00:15
Mountain biking in Israel
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is something that I do with great passion
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and commitment.
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And when I'm on my bike,
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I feel that I connect
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with the profound beauty of Israel,
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and I feel that I'm united
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with this country's history
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and biblical law.
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And also, for me,
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biking is a matter of empowerment.
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When I reach the summit
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of a steep mountain in the middle of nowhere,
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I feel young,
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invincible, eternal.
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It's as if I'm connecting with some legacy
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or with some energy
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far greater than myself.
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You can see my fellow riders
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at the end of the picture,
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looking at me with some concern.
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And here is another picture of them.
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Unfortunately, I cannot show their faces,
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neither can I disclose their true names,
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and that's because my fellow riders
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are juvenile inmates,
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offenders
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spending time in a correction facility
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about 20 minutes' ride from here --
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well, like everything in Israel.
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And I've been riding with these kids once a week,
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every Tuesday, rain or shine, for the last four years
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and by now, they've become a very big part of my life.
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This story began four years ago.
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The correction facility where they are locked up
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happens to be right in the middle
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of one of my usual trips,
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and it's surrounded by barbed wires
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and electric gates and armed guards.
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So on one of these rides,
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I talked my way into the compound
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and went to see the warden.
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I told the warden
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that I wanted to start a mountain biking club in this place
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and that basically I wanted to take the kids
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from here to there.
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And I told him, "Let's find a way
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in which I'll be able to take out 10 kids once a week
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to ride with in the summer in the country."
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And the warden was quite amused,
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and he told me he thought that I was a nut
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and he told me,
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"This place is a correction facility. These guys are serious offenders.
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They are supposed to be locked up.
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They aren't supposed to be out at large."
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And yet, we began to talk about it,
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and one thing led to another.
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And I can't see myself
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going into a state prison in New Jersey
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and making such a proposition,
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but this being Israel,
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the warden somehow made it happen.
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And so two months later,
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we found ourselves "at large" --
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myself,
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10 juvenile inmates
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and a wonderful fellow named Russ,
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who became a very good friend of mine
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and my partner in this project.
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And in the next few weeks, I had the tremendous pleasure
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of introducing these kids
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to the world of total freedom,
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a world consisting of magnificent vistas
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like these --
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everything you see here is obviously in Israel --
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as well as close encounters
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with all sorts of small creatures
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coming in all sorts of sizes,
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colors, shapes, forms
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and so on.
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In spite of all this splendor,
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the beginning was extremely frustrating.
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Every small obstacle,
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every slight uphill,
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would cause these fellows
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to stop in their tracks and give up.
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So we had a lot of this going on.
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I found out that they had a very hard time
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dealing with frustration and difficulties --
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not because they were physically unfit.
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But that's one reason why they ended up where they were.
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And I became increasingly more and more agitated,
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because I was there
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not only to be with them,
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but also to ride and create a team
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and I didn't know what to do.
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Now, let me give you an example.
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We're going downhill in some rocky terrain,
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and the front tire of Alex
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gets caught in one of these crevasses here.
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So he crashes down,
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and he gets slightly injured,
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but this does not prevent him from jumping up
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and then starting to jump up and down on his bike
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and curse violently.
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Then he throws his helmet in the air.
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His backpack goes ballistic in some other direction.
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And then he runs to the nearest tree
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and starts to break branches and throw rocks
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and curse like I've never heard.
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And I'm just standing there,
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watching this scene
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with a complete disbelief,
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not knowing what to do.
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I'm used to algorithms
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and data structures
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and super motivated students,
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and nothing in my background
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prepared me to deal
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with a raging, violent adolescent
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in the middle of nowhere.
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And you have to realize that these incidents
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did not happen in convenient locations.
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They happened in places like this,
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in the Judean Desert,
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20 kilometers away from the nearest road.
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And what you don't see in this picture
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is that somewhere between these riders there,
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there's a teenager sitting on a rock,
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saying, "I'm not moving from here. Forget it.
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I've had it."
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Well, that's a problem
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because one way or another, you have to get this guy moving
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because it's getting dark soon and dangerous.
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It took me several such incidents to figure out what I was supposed to do.
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At the beginning, it was a disaster.
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I tried harsh words and threats
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and they took me nowhere.
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That's what they had all their lives.
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And at some point I found out,
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when a kid like this gets into a fit,
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the best thing that you can possibly do
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is stay as close as possible to this kid,
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which is difficult,
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because what you really want to do is go away.
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But that's what he had all his life,
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people walking away from him.
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So what you have to do is stay close
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and try to reach in
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and pet his shoulder
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or give him a piece of chocolate.
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So I would say, "Alex, I know that it's terribly difficult.
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Why don't you rest for a few minutes
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and then we'll go on."
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"Go away you maniac-psychopath.
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Why would you bring us to this goddamn place?"
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And I would say, "Relax, Alex.
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Here's a piece of chocolate."
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And Alex would go, "Arrrrggg!"
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Because you have to understand
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that on these rides we are constantly hungry --
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and after the rides also.
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And who is this guy, Alex, to begin with?
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He's a 17-year-old.
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When he was eight,
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someone put him on a boat in Odessa
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and sent him, shipped him to Israel
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on his own.
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And he ended up in south Tel Aviv
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and did not have the good luck
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to be picked up by a [unclear]
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and roamed the streets
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and became a prominent gang member.
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And he spent the last 10 years of his life
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in two places only,
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the slums and the state prison,
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where he spent the last two years
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before he ended up sitting on this rock there.
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And so this kid
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was probably abused,
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abandoned, ignored, betrayed
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by almost every adult along the way.
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So, for such a kid,
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when an adult that he learns to respect stays close to him
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and doesn't walk away from him
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in any situation,
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irrespective of how he behaves,
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it's a tremendous healing experience.
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It's an act of unconditional acceptance,
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something that he never had.
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I want to say a few words about vision.
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When I started this program four years ago,
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I had this original plan
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of creating a team
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of winning underdogs.
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I had an image of Lance Armstrong
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in my mind.
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And it took me exactly two months
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of complete frustration
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to realize that this vision
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was misplaced,
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and that there was another vision
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supremely more important
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and more readily available.
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It all of a sudden dawned on me, in this project,
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that the purpose of these rides
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should actually be
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to expose the kids
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to one thing only: love.
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Love to the country, to the uphill
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and the downhill,
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to all the incredible creatures that surround us --
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the animals, the plants,
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the insects --
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love and respect
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to other fellow members in your team,
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in your biking team,
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and most importantly,
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love and respect to yourself,
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which is something
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that they badly miss.
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Together with the kids,
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I also went through a remarkable transformation.
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Now, I come from a cutthroat world
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of science and high technology.
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I used to think that reason and logic
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and relentless drive
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were the only ways to make things happen.
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And before I worked with the kids,
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anything that I did with them,
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or anything that I did with myself,
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was supposed to be perfect,
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ideal, optimal,
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but after working with them for some time,
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I discovered the great virtues of empathy
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and flexibility
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and being able to start with some vision,
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and if the vision doesn't work, well nothing happened.
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All you have to do is play with it, change it a little bit,
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and come up with something that does help, that does work.
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So right now, I feel more
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like these are my principles,
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and if you don't like them,
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I have others.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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And one of these principles
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is focus.
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Before each ride
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we sit together with the kids,
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and we give them one word
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to think about during the ride.
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You have to focus their attention on something
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because so many things happen.
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So these are words like "teamwork"
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or "endurance"
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or even complicated concepts
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like "resource allocation"
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or "perspective," a word that they don't understand.
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You know, perspective
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is one of these critically important
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life-coping strategies
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that mountain biking can really teach you.
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I tell kids
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when they struggle through some uphill
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and feel like they cannot take it anymore,
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it really helps to ignore the immediate obstacles
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and raise your head and look around
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and see how the vista around you grows.
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It literally propels you upwards.
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That's what perspective is all about.
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Or you can also look back in time
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and realize that you've already conquered
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steeper mountains before.
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And that's how they develop self-esteem.
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Now, let me give you an example of how it works.
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You stand with your bike at the beginning of February.
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It's very cold, and you're standing in one of these rainy days,
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and it's drizzling
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and cold and chilly,
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and you're standing in, let's say, Yokneam.
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And you look up at the sky through a hole in the clouds
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you see the monastery at the top of the Muhraka --
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that's where you're supposed to climb now --
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and you say, "There's no way that I could possibly get there."
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And yet, two hours later
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you find yourself standing on the roof of this monastery,
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smeared with mud,
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blood and sweat.
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And you look down at Yokneam;
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everything is so small and tiny.
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And you say, "Hey, Alex. Look at this parking lot where we started.
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It's that big.
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I can't believe that I did it."
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And that's the point
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when you start loving yourself.
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And so we talked about
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these special words that we teach them.
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And at the end of each ride, we sit together
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and share moments
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in which those special words of the day
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popped up and made a difference,
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and these discussions
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can be extremely inspiring.
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In one of them, one of the kids once said,
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"When we were riding on this ridge
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overlooking the Dead Sea --
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and he's talking about this spot here --
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"I was reminded
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of the day when I left my village in Ethiopia
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and went away together with my brother.
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We walked 120 kilometers
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until we reached Sudan.
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This was the first place where we got some water and supplies."
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And he goes on saying, and everyone looks at him like a hero,
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probably for the first time in his life.
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And he says -- because I also have volunteers riding with me,
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adults, who are sitting there
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listening to him --
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and he says, "And this was just the beginning
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of our ordeal
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until we ended up in Israel.
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And only now," he says,
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"I'm beginning to understand where I am,
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and I actually like it."
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Now I remember, when he said it,
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I felt goosebumps on my body,
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because he said it overlooking the Moab Mountains here in the background.
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That's where Joshua descended
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and crossed the Jordan
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and led the people of Israel into the land of Canaan
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3,000 years ago
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in this final leg
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of the journey from Africa.
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And so, perspective
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and context and history
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play key roles
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in the way I plan my rides
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with the kids.
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We visit Kibbutzim
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that were established by Holocaust survivors.
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We explore ruins
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of Palestinian villages,
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and we discuss how they became ruins.
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And we go through numerous remnants
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of Jewish settlements, Nabatic settlements,
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Canaanite settlements --
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three-, four, five-thousand years old.
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And through this tapestry,
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which is the history of this country,
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the kids acquire
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what is probably the most important
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value in education,
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and that is the understanding that life is complex,
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and there's no black and white.
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And by appreciating complexity,
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they become more tolerant,
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and tolerance leads to hope.
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I ride with these kids once a week,
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every Tuesday.
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Here's a picture I took last Tuesday -- less than a week ago --
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and I ride with them tomorrow also.
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In every one of these rides
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I always end up standing in one of these incredible locations,
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taking in this incredible landscape around me,
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and I feel blessed and fortunate
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that I'm alive,
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and that I sense every fiber
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in my aching body.
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And I feel blessed and fortunate
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that 15 years ago
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I had the courage to resign
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my tenured position at NYU
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and return to my home country
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where I can do these incredible rides
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with this group of troubled kids
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coming from Ethiopia
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and Morocco and Russia.
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And I feel blessed and fortunate
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that every week, every Tuesday --
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and actually every Friday also --
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I can once again celebrate
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in the marrow of my bones
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the very essence of living in Israel on the edge.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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Original video on YouTube.com
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