Jason Mraz is one of the hottest re-cording artists and has gone from playing coffeehouses and surfing in Southern California to headlining and selling out major concert venues.
An inspiring figure with a sense of purpose and dedication to both humanity and the planet, he has become a proponent of the ever-growing "We Day" campaign. Joe Leary spent 24 Seconds with Jason Mraz.
24: You were involved in Vancouver's recent "We Day". What was that experience like?
JM: 'We Day' was great. I'd been here working with Craig and Mark Kielburger, Eckhart Tolle, and everyone at the "Me to We" movement, and my experience began in dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, Premier Gordon Campbell; just a number of great minds, thinkers, generous people and activists.
I just felt incredibly touched to be invited into such a scene and then the actual event; the rock concert for social change that "We Day" was - it was just huge.
To have 16,000 crazy, active kids who were conscious; who were actually awake in their life already and know that they can make a difference, was pretty moving. I left inspired.
24: Is Canada sort of ahead of the curve when it comes to things like this?
JM: Absolutely. The way that these kids are so enrolled and the way that the families support it in the school system, and the way that Canada is actually giving a damn about the rest of the world; the outreach has been phenomenal, so I really want to do my part as a U.S. citizen to see if I can't bring this program down south and infect families with all this goodness.
24: You reach out to a lot of youth. Do you find the youth of today really does care and is concerned about what's going on to people around them?
JM: Yeah, I really do. More and more youth are waking up to realizing that their life is in their hands and the whole state of the earth is in their hands.
I think that they're growing up in this recession that we're experiencing now, growing up having known about climate crisis and they're looking at the generations past and saying, "Where did you guys screw this up and what can we do to sort of amend it?"
And, these kids are growing up online, so they're dialed in to the entire planet and they can communicate with communities all over the world which is a powerful tool. I think it creates fewer enemies and creates a tighter community.
24: Considering you were a guy that started off playing coffee shops, do you ever take a moment out to reflect on your career. The last time you were in Vancouver, it was a 3,000 - 4,000 seat theatre, now you're headlining GM Place; which is a major arena. Do you ever look at that and go, "Wow!"?
JM: I do - everyday. We're sitting in the stadium right now and I just look behind me and say, "Wow." It's still very new to me and I'm still taking it everyday with as much gratitude as I can be practising and I'm grateful to be considered for this task, which is communicating with people and using music to keep the positive vibrations alive and flowing.
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