Tag: TED

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The Third Act

I love TED talks. They are a preferred learning network and yes I prefer them to regularly scheduled cable television. Tonight I watched a couple of really interesting and inspiring talks. I’m approaching another birthday. Next month I’ll be sixty-one. Recently I retired and I’ve been exploring what that means for me. This talk by Jane Fonda about “Life’s third act,” is profound for me because it inspires me. Though I’ve entered my seventh decade of life I’m still young at heart. I still love learning and sharing what I’ve learned with others. Retirement has given me an opportunity to pursue some new ventures like working at the Warming House. I’m able to spend more time reading and writing. Just this week I’ve returned to daily Mass at the local parish. Daily Eucharists were part of my life as a young man.  I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I have and that you draw from it inspiration for your own journey.

[ted id=1313]

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Twitter a medium for storytelling and more

I’ve been watching Andrew Fitzgerald’s, “Adventure’s in Twitter Fiction,” another interesting TED talk. I’ve been a Twitter user for almost six years.  I was not sure what Twitter was at first and a bit skeptical and unsure of how this worked. A bit more than four years ago I began to follow sources on Twitter and I found it superior to RSS feeds that I had been reading up until then. Andrew’s talk provides yet another application of Twitter and invites the viewer to consider yet other ways which Twitter empowers its users both active and passive to be part of an international multiple point broadcast network. Virtual Abbey is one such application of Twitter. Virtual Abbey tweets the Liturgy of the Hours each day. It’s a unique application of Twitter. I’ve found that using Twitter for conversation forces me to be more succinct and it also helps me to appreciate the power of just a few words.  Andrew’s talk is an invitation to consider the similarities between Twitter and the early days of radio. I’ve found Twitter a great way to follow sporting events that are not broadcast of blacked out locally. Thanks Andrew for a great talk.

[ted id=1841]

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Good and Evil

I came across this very good TED Talk by Phillip Zimbardo and it reminded me of the writings of both Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh. We all have within us the seeds of good and evil. Good and evil reside within us all. They are not external forces acting upon us.