An Odd Friendship teaches a lesson in Empathy

For my final TED video talk I watched 9/11 healing mothers who found forgiveness and friendship. We had discussed the video in class on May 5th, 2011 and I decided to watch it. The talk told the story of two mothers; one who had lost her son on 9/11 and the other whose son had been convicted on suspicion for the 9/11 attacks. Basically Aicha el-waif's son killed Phyllis Rodriguez's son. But when they met there was not hate or anger just love and sadness for the loss of their two sons( Since Aicha's son was put in jail for life). But what would cause them to not hate each other? It is empathy. An interesting concept, empathy, and few have harnessed its life changing powers. Phyllis and Aicha bonded over the fact that they both lost a son that day. They put themselves in each others shoes and decided that hate would get them nowhere only love would bring the peace that they both desperately wanted. So this made me think, was there a real power above hate, was it that the power of human nature triumph over hate? I took a moment and took a step back from everything I was going through, from all my stresses, and thought of the most important people in my life and imagined that(god forbid) something bad happened to them. What I would do, how I would react and how I would feel. All I could come up with was don't stop fighting for them, don't stop trying to make everything okay. Then I thought what if I meet the Mother of the person who caused that bad thing. How would I feel towards them? To be honest I wasn't mad at them, I didn't hate them, I wonder though was their loved one alright? I believe that it is Human nature to protect the things and people that are the most beloved. I also believe that people can all connect over that concept that we are all trying to protect what we love and that overcomes everything.

Phyllis and Aicha bonded over that fact that their sons were lost that terrible day of 9/11. Once everyone in the world can bond over the common and empathies with each other we truly will have a successful future.

Sam Richards: A radical Experiment in empathy

"While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him."- Fyodor Dostoevsky
This is a quote that Sam Richards used in his TED talk about empathy. His main point was for people to walk a mile or even an inch in another mans shoes. That if we can try to understand other people we can create a great social reform To begin his talk he gave an example to think about. That we were all Americans and in the 1800's the Chinese came in and took all of our coal and they built their economy around coal and the energy that is created by coal. Mr. Richards then asked how would we feel as Americans when we are living in poverty and China is full of riches off of our coal and the Chinese don't really care about us all they care about is our coal. How would we Americans feel? I know that I would be angry I would see all these people living the life I wanted and being prosperous and having many things that I just could never have all because they took something from me. Then Sam Richards gave the example, that we were to put ourselves in the shoes of an Arab Muslim living in Iraq. How we would feel about the American "invaders" that were coming in an starting a war over oil. The Americans didn't care about us all they cared about was OIL. And on top of all that they were Christians who didn't understand our religion and they told us that our God is fake and their God is real, that they were on crusade in the Middle East. (Crusade is defined as any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc). The last time there was a crusade it was a religious movement against the Muslims in the middle east. Sam Richards asked the audience how they would react if they were the Muslim in Iraq today. I know for one I wouldn't accept the Americans moving in on my land very openly, I would have a skewed view of what they were doing and quite frankly I would not appreciate it.
What I got from all of this is that everyone in the world needs to take a lesson in Empathy. I feel like that there would be a lot less issues in the world if we could just take a minute and step away from the situation and see the world from someone elses shoes. That is what Empathy is, it is the ability to see the world from someone elses shoes. America defiantly has some issues with that. Like we don't really think about how the people in the other countries are really going to feel. We just kind of brush everything off because the bad things aren't happening to us or on our homelands. We just write it off and don't care; and its not like it is broad casted to us how the other people of the planet feel all we see is how we feel. Empathy is an important skill for everyone to have, its even emphasized as a chapter in A Whole New Mind. I believe that in order to be successful it is prominent that the world knows about empathy in order for the world to not fall apart and for it to be good we all have to walk a mile in another persons shoes.
I thank Sam Richards for teaching that in his inspirational TED talk

Dave Eggers: His wish

Dave Eggers, might be one of the most genius poeple on this planet. He saw something that needed to be done and he went for and did it. I am simply in awe of the brilliance of what his talk was about. It's just like finally someone who gets it! I know from my personal experience that I just feel better after talking to a teacher one on one than getting basic instruction from the entire class. I know that English is not my strong point and every time I receive a project I worry about it so much that I cannot even function correctly enough to do a really good job on it. But if I had a real writer a genuine critic at my disposal at all times I know I would do so much better. Also I know I had troubles writing from prompts that I basically didn't really care about what so ever. But I just get this feeling that if I were to be involved in this program I would not only get to write about things that I care about but also start to care about the things that I have to write about.

Dave Eggers has a wish that all people start engaging in public schools. He and some of his friends started a tutoring company in San Fransisco. They bought a building space but it was in a retail part of town so in order to keep their space they had to sell something, so they decided to sell pirate gear, basically everything someone would need to be the stereotypical pirate. Which I just think is incredible like seriously who does and or thinks of something like that. He then proceeded to talk about the tutoring company and how writers would work throughout the day on their projects and then once school was let out the students would come to the store and the writers would give up their time to work with the students personally and side by side. Once the company started growing, more volunteers started joining in and soon enough there where enough volunteers to start working in the schools so that entire schools. And then more tutoring companies started all over the country. Even though Dave Eggers was a little all over the place his talk was still very good.

The whole point of all of this is creating a way for students to be heard from their teachers and the world. By providing one on one help to students it is now possible for more students to be able to achieve more in writing and literature.

Three Realizations

Ric Elias was in seat 1D of the airplane that crashed into the Hudson River just about two years ago. The plane was leaving Manhatten and the skyline was still in sight when the piolet turned to the Hudson turned the plane engine off and told everyone the unkind words "brace for impact". In the minutes the plane was free falling into the Hudson Ric Elias realized three things, he no longer wants to postpone anything in his life, he regretted wasting time on things that did not matter with people that did matter, and finally dying is not scary, it's the thing's he could miss out on that were scary. At the end of his short 5min talk he challenged everyone to imagine that they were on a plane that was about to crash, what would their three realizations be? So I took the challenge, which is kind of hard at 15. My First realization would be I never said enough, I never said everything I wanted to when I was sad or mad. I never said the things that I was afraid to say. My next realization is that I held on to things for too long. I never let things go so those things just kept haunting me. My final realization is that even though some things seem unnecessary they were and all the things my teachers made me do were worth it. At the end of the day I will know that I learned something important and worth while.

Ric Elias had a very good speaking style he spoke fluently and had a couple light hearted joke in the midst of it all. What mattered to him was that he really wanted to be there for his kids, it was the fortunes he had that made his days good. It is incredible to me that in about a 6 minute TED talk someone can really make an impact.

Clay Shirky: Congnitive Surplus

The TED talk by Clay Shirky is very informational and cannot be absorbed in one watching, it can actually take three or four watchings. Mr. Shirky has a way of presenting that is very sly and there are many sudden things that can surprise a person such as LOLcats appearing on the screen while the definition of cognitive surplus is discussed. He was not completely fluent throughout his speech and at sometimes it was hard to keep up. Subtitles are helpful.

Cognitive surplus is the ability for the worlds population to volunteer, contribute and calibrate on large projects(in the words of Clay Shirky). Cognitive surplus has been made widely possible with new technology and the wide variety of media outlets. Since it is widely available for the people of this world to reach and transfer information, the media has become a whole different game. In the Beginning of his TED talk Clay Shirky Spoke of a woman, Ory Okolloh, who created a blog to let people know where outbursts of violence where in Kenya, she received so many comments and emails with information that she needed a way to automate. Two programmer's helped and created a website where the information received would be automatically put on a map. This is an Example of cognitive surplus; of people volunteering their time and information to help better a cause. Cognitive surplus happens everywhere in our world today. YouTube is an example if this. A person can find just about any information they will ever need on YouTube. New Videos are uploaded every single day. All full of information, useful or useless, but it is still information given to the world by people who are not paid, but people who want to share their talents with the world. Cognitive surplus is our future, it is going to be the way that information travels, think about it how many people go to the news paper? How many people go to the internet to find out information? Cognitive surplus even affects us in Smith's English 9 Honors class. We share our information through fishbowl's and blogging. Cognitive surplus is the way of the future everyone must accept that.

Daniel Pink-TED Talk 3- Period 2

Dan Pink's TED talk was quite motivational. During his talk he showed everyone a puzzle where a person must tack a candle to a wall without letting the wax hit the table, a simple yet complicated problem. The initial thought was to tack the candle to the wall, then to melt the wax and adhere the candle to the wall. But neither of those options work, the answer is to tack the box holding the tacks to the wall and put the candle inside of it. A quite simple solution when it is shown. Thinking of how to use all components to its fully capacity is something that all humans are capable of and is the answer to most problems. However, most people don't use everything to its full capacity. Most people have motivation, a drive, inside of them but most people don't use it to its full capacity. Most people let the drive in them take over and solve all the problems in their lives. The people who do let the drive take over are the ones who are going to succeed in the world, the people who are going to get the good jobs and invent the best things. It's the drive in people that will set them apart form others.

Dan Pink gave a great speech with great fluency. What mattered to him was the drive or motivation in people and how it affects the world. He wants the world to know that rewards will only help in the short term not the long. Thats what matters to him.

Belief In Yourself- TED talk 2- Period 2

As my first TED talk that I decided to view on my own I watched Caroline Casey: Looking past Limits. At the age of 17 Caroline discovered that she was and always has been legally blind. She refused to let that take her down and powered through 11 years of learning and trying to find the carrier that was best for her. One day on a run she broke and no longer knew what to do with her life, when she suddenly decided that she want to be like Mowgli from the Jungle Book. She then rode and elephant across India, raised money for eye surgeries, and started many new charities. Believing in yourself is what mattered to Caroline Casey. She could no see the world around her but lived like she could every single twist and turn. As a teenager in the average American high school find who I want to be, what I want to be, and believing in myself, is something of a challenge. There is no way to know who I want to be if I don't know who I am. It is a major point of the TED talk that all people no matter who they are should not be limited, and much too often we are. Being in High School there is limits everywhere, the "you can't do that" "you are not good enough for them, or him, or her" and the "no way you are ever going to succeed in that". Limits should no stop people, limits should only challenge people to go further and do better and believe in themselves. No person, not me, not you, not anyone is limited and everyone can be every single part of themselves. That's what Caroline taught me, that's what I took away from the inspirational TED talk from a blind woman who spoke well, and commanded that stage even though she could not see where she was or how far from the edge she was. She believed in herself and created something beautiful and inspirational, it's all about believing in yourself.