John Francis: why I voluntarily stopped speaking for 17 years

37 minutes ago

Jo Fidgen et Laura Thomas,
BBC Serie Outlook *

image caption,

John Francis, yesterday and today.

American John Francis, a young hippie, made a decision that changed his life: to stop talking. He was silent for 17 years before realizing he had something to say.

It all started with a disaster. A collision between two oil tankers in 1971 that polluted San Francisco Bay with more than half a million gallons of crude oil.

“I heard regarding it and wanted to see it, so I drove all the way to San Francisco from my small town of Inverness. I saw people on the beach in small groups cleaning up. They were going in the water and came out with seabirds – pelicans, gulls and cormorants – covered in oil.”

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