Ted Talks

January 1. 2019
“Death: the Best Invention of life. – Say what?”

            You can imagine my surprise when I heard of Carol Channing dying a second time. I don’t know when it was that I first assumed she was dead, but it was a good while back. Now, it becomes obvious that she is not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. You could’ve knocked me over with a munchkin.

            It’s hard for me to mourn Ms Channing’s demise, considering she was 97 when she died and that she died doing what she loved to do. -- I have not a clue as to what that might’ve been. I hate it when I write myself into a corner like that.

            Some of you may think it a bit crass to try to invent humor out of someone’s passing, but it’s okay if I do it, because I too am going to be a dead person. One of these days. It’s something that each of us has to do, unless we’re a vampire or one of the characters on “Big Bang Theory.”

            Even if you’re fairly sure you’re going to heaven, most of us will likely go out kicking and screaming. Let’s face it; dying is something we’ve never done before. It’ll be something new to us, and you know how much we fear change.

            However, Steven Jobs said that knowing you’re going to die is actually a blessing. While delivering a commencement address at a big college, he said “Death is the single best invention of life. It clears out the old to make room for new.” -- Okay, whatever. Let me try out this other quote:  “If you live each day as if it were your last, it one day will be.” Boy, the guy was deep.

            Jobs said that you have to look back on your life and connect all the dots that involve you doing something you were good at and that you enjoyed. Assuming it didn’t involve hallucinogens, we should each view our “good” moments and see how we might be able to make something of them in the NOW! Something enjoyable. Something that might involve creativity; something that matters – to you.

            By the way, I listened to Jobs’ talk this morning while visiting TED on the Internet. “TED” is a non-profit outfit, formed in 1984 (before personal computers) to spread ideas about Technology, Entertainment and Design all over the world. Over the past 35 years, the list of subject matter has grown exponentially. With the advent of the Internet one can now easily find people, of all make, model, age and talent, delivering short talks on everything from “What I learned from 100 days of rejection.” to “A brief history of cheese.” 

            I don’t believe any of the talks are over 18 minutes. Many are half as long. And, as I said, they cover practically any topic you can think of. Including, “Why it’s now okay to end a sentence with a preposition.”

            What got me involved with TED this morning was Carol Channing. Remember her? Right, she died. And, that got me thinking about my death, because it’s always about me. The worst thing that can happen to me is to live just to die. I don’t see myself doing that at the moment, but give me a few years.

            Let’s face it, the best time to do something good; something that is enjoyable and that matters is when you’re still alive. In other words -- NOW! -- With that in mind, I visited TED to learn from other people who had groomed their imagination and creativity to the point where they discovered new opportunities… new directions in life. Enjoyable and purposeful stuff they could do besides wait on death.

            At the TED site, I checked on several ideas that interested me. One talk was about what I previously mentioned. The one titled “What I learned from 100 days of rejection,” I absolutely hate rejection. Makes me want to quit trying. Weird thing is, it did the same things to Jia Jiang, the young man who delivered the talk. The person who set out to experience rejection each day for 100 days.  

            One day, he went to a Starbucks and asked if he could get a job as a greeter. Another day he went to a popular hamburger joint and asked if he could get a refill on his burger. After 100 rejections, the young man no longer feared rejection or failure. He had even learned several techniques that seemed to help make people more accepting of his really dumb ideas.

            Like I say, I listened to several more talks and learned something valuable from each. What I’d like to leave you with here, is the realization that it doesn’t matter your age or interests; there’s something out there for you. I believe Steve Jobs said it best when he urged us to:  “Stay hungry! Stay foolish!” -- Unfortunately, I’ve never had a problem with either one of those. Didn’t help me one bit.

            I now have a desire to listen to the talk entitled “How to accept reality.” I’ll let you know if it helps.                     

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You can contact Mark at  hayter.mark@gmail.com.