Notes from TEDxAustin: Scribblings and Sparks in the Dark

Posted on 22 February 2010 | No responses

[cross-posted from uber.la]

[Preamble] My list is incomplete. I was flooded with emotions during a number of the talks/performances/connections. My presence was 100%, my attention wandered with the intensity of the moment and my occasional need for some down time. It was sort of like a sweat lodge in the Austin City Limits studio. We were all prayin, the rocks and air were getting hotter, the presentations compounded the energy and gathered the collective WE, and the flap was only lifted three times during the entire day! WOW! [end of Preamble]

The opening trio at TEDxAustin, took my breath away. And with late apologies to Christopher E. Mueller Ph.D., I pretty much stumbled out of the studio for a bio break and a moment to gather my thoughts. I watched Dr. Mueller from the RED Room using the LiveStream feed but I was still recovering from the exposure and life-altering discussions of the first three speakers at TEDxAustin:

• Rip Esselstyn Firefighter, nutrition leader, author of The Engine 2 Diet
• Doug Ulman President/CEO the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Founder of the Ulman Foundation for Young Adults
• Steven Tomlinson Business educator & coach, theatre artist, co-founder of Acton School of Business

So here are my notes from the opening trio.

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Rip jumped right into the “heart” of the matter with a brilliant graph from his studies. His message, heart disease and cancer can be beaten with a plant strong diet. Animal protein and animal fat are not healthy for you. With his energy and passion it was clear to see the PLANT is the thing. He showed a graphic describing our diets as 67% enriched grains, 21% animal powered, 12% plant powered. And to cap it all off, 6% of the plant powered are French fries, so actually the number is closer to 6%.

And the science is easy to digest. Plant = health for the person and the planet. Meat = cancer, obesity, heart disease.

The one stat that really bummed me out however was when he took on Olive Oil. The “heart healthy” oil. And showed my gormet popcorn (olive oil and sea salt) to be nothing more than a FAT generator. There is ZERO nutrients in olive oil. So it might not make your colesterol go up, but it’s sure gonna make your belt size go up. Ben and Jerry’s was easy to see. Even hamburgers (Kobe included) are a pretty clear choice. But I figured my pop corn was a sacred and “heart friendly” snack. So I wasn’t too happy when Rip finished , but it was clear where the work in my personal eating habits needed to change.

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Next up was Doug Ulman. A passionate cancer survivor who unveils his personal story and how he got involved with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. A few points:

The global cancer burden will be 300 Billion this year alone. 8 million people will die of cancer this year.

The cure for cancer is a myth. While the research and development of drugs and treatment for cancer continues, we cannot sit and wait for them to discover the cure. The cure is not coming. The burden is on each of us to do better in our lives and in supporting the lives of others.

The impact of LAF is in the breaking of the isolation of the cancer patient and their family once the words, “You Have Cancer” have been uttered.

What LAF gives cancer fighters is the empowerment to take charge of their lives, their treatment program and a path to connect with others who are on the same journey.

Where before LAF and Susan G Komen there was isolation, now there is connection. WE are in this together.

Now coupled on the back end of Rip’s presentation, it was like a one-two punch. My father died of both Cancer and Heart Disease. The unhinging of that sadness was as simple as seeing a picture of the Butler Bros dad, in his fight against cancer. The eyes of hopeful joy beaming out were so similar to my father on a good day. 20+ years ago my family did not have a place to go or rally around my father’s transition. We hovered around his bed at St. Davids and we consoled each other in our own misery. But it was a VERY PRIVATE AFFAIR.

Doug’s message is, cancer does not have to be an insolating and depressing event. Today’s awareness and communities provide information, support, access to clinical studies for potentially life-saving treatments.

In a private conversation later I challenged Doug on some of the transparency regarding products and profits on the LAF website. He was quite open and very reflective on my questions. It was clear he was making notes and would ask some of the same questions to his staff. His immediate openness and clarity on what he is doing and what LAF is doing was refreshing.

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And so what it was about Steven Tomlinson that sewed me up and set me aflame?

• He’s an amazing actor. One-man plays being his specialty, he was spot on yesterday!
• I’ve known him peripherally over the last 20 years, in fact is was a UT rebirth that led me to take the playwriting 101 class where Steven was the TA.
• The two plays of Steven’s that I have seen live have been amazing, so I was receptive and willing to follow him down almost any meander and thought path as his narrative unfolded.
• His topic was his own questioning and discovering of his “calling.”  And his program contained some elements of how to create a “life of meaning.” At least in a Steven Tomlinson way. What’s not to love about that quest?

There were a few other synergies at work as well. In his quest, many of his passions and diversions seemed closely aligned with my own.

His motto: “Discard Nothing!” was a wonderful variation and much more positive take on my recent motto, taken from the 2009 Star Trek movie: “Fire Everything!” While mine was Type-A, agressive and guns-a-blasin. Steven’s had a more balanced vibe. More patient and aware.

His premise of letting all the various parts of lives, our passions and goals, live and co-exist without exclusion was powerful. His example: he loved to teach, he loved numbers (a MS in accounting), he was a standup comedian/playwright,  and he had some leanings toward entering the seminary, but he was confused about where to focus his energy. When pressed for the answer about which path to choose, his mentor said, “That’s the stupidest question anyone has ever asked me.” (Chalk that up to dramatic hyperbole.) But the message he received was simple. Would you ask me to shut off or deny several of your passions in service of the great one passion?

We need to let these parts of ourselves mingle and kick around with each other. “Discard nothing of ourselves.”

And as he went on his premise grew in strength and conviction.

He mentioned “degrees of freedom” as a frame for peeling away the layers of shite that prevent us from being whole. And had a great example of packing pop-top tuna in his car to give to beggars at opportune times.

And in his final thrust with his own self-discovery he talks about the Artist’s Way and the “morning pages” practice.  How we learn to dialogue with ourselves. And as we do it more frequently, these parts of ourselves that previously seemed so disparate begin weaving together into a common song. The song we want to sing. And the song only we can sing.

One of the great phrases he uses, outlining his patient and deliberate practice was, “Staring at things until they inspire us.”

If we allow all these parts of ourselves, and even parts of the world to exist, and we listen… And we continue to dialogue with ourselves… We get better at asking the deep questions. And our voices emerge and we get better at expressing what our “mission” maybe. And through that expression of possibility comes the WAY for that mission to become our LIVES.

We must listen. And have the patience with ourselves when the successes aren’t coming as quickly as we’d like them to. Or when the successes seem implausable and almost impossible.

We must give voice to our own inner dialogue about deep things. And in doing this we open ourselves to the potential of becoming who we really want to be.

Becoming who the world needs us to be.

Becoming! (Yes, that about sums it up for me.)

Namasté,

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/TEDx-trio

IAMACONNECTOR.COM has a growing TEDxAustin page: TEDxAustin Connect (please join and ask for admin rights, and you can add your connections from this masterful event!)

• The Sparkers List from TEDxAustin (yes I misspelled that on purpose!)
• Jon L’s reflections and notes on TEDxAustin
• Eugene Sepulveda’s TEDx reflections
• A Flickr photo collection from TEDxAustin
• NetImpact: Big Ideas at Inaugural TEDxAustin
• Kirk Tuck: Things I learned photographing a TEDx conference

And now a small word poem that would not be suppressed:

More becoming everyday
Becoming more everyday
Everyday becoming more
Everyday more becoming
Becoming everyday more
More everyday becoming

An MLK Manifesto 2010: I have a dream… I wish social media… (bi-lingal version)

Posted on 18 January 2010 | No responses

I wish social media could be used to…
Ojalá los medios de comunicación social puede ser utilizado para …

Help Haiti. Ayudar a Haití.

Teach people. Enseñar a la gente.

Provide computers and access to those unable to provide for themselves. Proporcionar ordenadores y el acceso a aquellos que no pueden valerse por sí mismos.

Connect even more of the world together by communities, affinities and passions. Conectar aún más del mundo junto con las comunidades, las afinidades y pasiones.

Build a team. Construir un equipo.

Create a tribe. Crear una tribu.

Lead a revolution. Dirigir una revolución.

Be at peace. Estar en paz.

Support our president. Apoyo a nuestro presidente.

Slow and reverse global warming, and stop arguing if it’s real or not. Frenar e invertir el calentamiento global, y dejar de discutir si es real o no.

Sing with one another. Canta con ellos.

Feed more people, provide more medicine, provide clean water to drink. Alimentar a más gente, proporcionar más cantidad de medicamento, proporcionar agua limpia para beber.

Learn humility and compassion. Aprender la humildad y la compasión.

Be more green. Ser más verde.

Reach across racial, economic and lifestyle prejudices to be more connected. Alcance a través racial, económica y prejuicios estilo de vida para estar más conectados.

Help build a more balanced health care system in the US. Ayudar a construir un mejor equilibrio del sistema de atención de salud en los EE.UU..

Support our troops both as they deploy and as they all come home wounded in some way. Support our troops, tanto en su despliegue y, como todos regresan heridos de alguna manera.

Recover from addictions. Recuperarse de las adicciones.

Be with the one’s we love. Estar con el que la amamos.

We could get more people on the cluetrain. Podríamos tener más gente en el tren de claves.

Support one another. Se apoyan mutuamente.

Drive fewer Hummers and biiiiig SUVs. Hummers unidad menos y SUVs biiiiig.

Pray to the same uber-God, sans dogma, or exclusionary religious politics. Ora a los uber mismo Dios, sin dogmas, o de exclusión política religiosa.

Learn to love more. Aprende a amar más.

Just be. Just Be.

Be just. Ser justo.

Love. Amor.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/MLK-2010s

The MLK dream speech.

(8:00 am CST, I’m going dark for 24 hours to be with the ones I love. And then I’m back to be with the dream of social media tomorrow morning. Blessings all. The views expressed here are mine alone, and do not reflect the opinions or professional guidance of my employer.) (8:00 am hora del centro, voy a oscuras durante 24 horas para estar con la gente que quiero. Y entonces vuelvo a estar con el sueño de los medios de comunicación social, mañana por la mañana. Bendiciones a todos. Las opiniones expresadas aquí son exclusivamente mías , y no reflejan las opiniones o la orientación profesional de mi empleador.)

In 140 Characters Is There Room for Poetry and Narrative?

Posted on 6 November 2009 | No responses

Sub-title: If on a summer’s night a tweeter.

Unessential words and motions is what Twitter is all about. With the growth of spammers and sex scammers Twitter grows less interesting by the day. But what if there were ART in them there tweets? What if something within 140 characters could evoke emotion, passion, story, song?

I have experimented in the poetic/electronic form wondering what Flash might bring to poetry that the written page could not. The “voice” can be heard in rich media. The voice of the poet or writer metering out the phrases, visual representations and letters drifting by as representations and not actual words or sentences.

Now comes a full 140 characters to work with. I have done a Haiku room to Twitter. I have written some one-liners tonight that remind me of the simple pleasure of doing an activity with no goal in mind. What is the value of a tweet? And thus what is the value of a poem? Each fleeting moment captured either in a momentary blip netted in RSS feeds and RTs. But nothing of “value” will become of the poem, much less the tweeted poem.

So why do we write? Why do words stick themselves together in random patterns? If it’s not for marketing or selling would we tweet at all?

I know my answer, but I am afraid the roar of the social media sphere is too loud for you to hear.

So within the quiet space of this moment I give you two momentary glimpses into my life. Nothing to gain from sharing them with you. Only my own fascination at the connection of the words and the images.

I would call you to find a voice within Twitter that has no value beyond beauty. And then give that beauty freely without bounds.

You might get some strange questions. You might get “unfollowed.” You will certainly wonder why you are doing it. But do it nonetheless. As we inject beauty into the world there is more beauty to go around. Why is Twitter any different? Amidst the din of the tweets can be heard the tap of rhythm and meter. And in 140 characters there is a limit much like haiku that can contain the world and the joy and the sorrow and the hope.

I gift you with hope tonight. The hope of 140 characters typed together in a flowing randomness or a lingering calculated thought. What ever it is, I call to you, songsters, tweeters, writers and poets; I invoke you to TWEEEEET something beautiful. I will try if you will try.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/twitter-poems

My two moments in 14o c.

The scorched earth smells like a musty old mare in the light rain sprinkling down and cooling the remaining heat of the day…

And a second one with imagined line breaks.

Proud cat brings in mouse/ gladly silent and still/ kids are less worried than the dogs/ and the rain begins outside/ and it is quiet again.

keep looking »