This week at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting, I was one of the first people seated at the opening plenary, in an empty row a couple rows back from the ones reserved for heads of state. Within minutes, a man sat down to my left. He turned out to be the co-author of several books by the Dalai Lama, with whom I have personally studied for the last 18 years. The co-author was working to help educate the heart of children, an area I am actively looking at embracing in a significant way. Perhaps our overlapping interests were merely coincidence.
To my right, however, arrived a man who attended the very first CGI seven years ago and made the bold and improbable commitment that his organization would raise $100 million to help the poorest people in the world; $100 million being the specific number I have shared with several people in terms of how much I would like to raise. Today he runs one of the largest development organizations in the world.The person in front of me, meanwhile, was a doctor working on educating the world on the impact that nutrition can have on disease, an area of study which has become a hobby for me after dozens of young people in my close circles have experienced all sorts of cancers. He knew of our work from last year’s film at CGI and is interested in a potential collaboration. His medical colleague, whose books I have read and whose work I have been following for years because I have been interested in how he has helped drastically change lives against all odds, was right next to him.
These encounters all took place in a matter of minutes, before the formal program had begun, and so it continued over the course of the next three days. One serendipitous encounter led to another. One area of interest connected with an expert in that field, whose interests, it turned, connected back to mine. I could feel connections and, from those connections, future solutions being formed—solutions that are yet to reveal themselves to me in full. As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said at the meeting, the time has passed for the World Bank; his intention is to bring forth the “Solutions Bank.” Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan added that it was time for a new type of education, one which helps children see the world in a different way. I’m not certain what will come of all of this, but I can tell you it felt momentous as it was happening, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I come back to thread these beads for you more clearly in a future post.