Terry Tempest Williams is a fierce environmentalist, a beautiful writer, a free spirited Mormon, and somewhat an enigma. I don't know Terry personally but I feel like I know her from various connections.She graduated from Highland High School just two years before I attended but I knew her brother, Steve Tempest, who was the Student Body President my Junior year. Terry is also friend's with Bruce Olsen as well as the Dunns and the McCulloughs.
A commencement speech she gave in 1999 at the College of the Atlantic is typical of her renegade style.
Below is the "speech" - although her audience may have been surprised that it's just a string of words. Well, only surprised if you aren't familiar with Terry. "Words" are her weapons!
"See, feel, question, explore, experience, walk, dance, run, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, cry, kneel, pray, pray often, bow, rise, stand, look, sing, embrace the questions, be wary of answers, create, cajole, confront, confound, walk backward, walk forward, circle, hide, seek, say no, say yes, embrace, follow your heart, trust your heart, engage love again and again on this beautiful, broken world."
Pretty awesome!
