Meaningful Community Connections
Today is a “teacher work day” at our school, and we’re allowed to work from wherever we want, so I’m working from home.
I started my day by watching 2 TEDx talks from the recent TEDxMidAtlantic event on my phone. I’ve had an opportunity to attend multiple TEDx events as an audience member, and speak at three events. It’s hard to overvalue the power of good ideas. And it’s also hard to overstate the value of putting together and sharing ideas about which you feel passionate, in a 12 to 15 minute talk in front of an audience. I recommend giving it a try yourself.
This morning, I watched two TEDxMidAtlantic talks, and I want to commend them to you for different reasons.
The first talk was “The rising cost of dissent in America.” by Miles Taylor:
I had never heard the name “Miles Taylor” before watching this video, but I certainly know a lot about the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and the subsequent global war on terror / GWOT, and the January 6th insurrection at our nation’s Capitol. I’m also quite aware of the horrific and vitriolic “troll army,” which now takes orders from people like Elon Musk and our current, elected chief executive.
Here is the comment I posted on this video, for Miles Taylor and anyone else who happens to read it:
“Thank you so much for your service and courage. So much from this talk is vital to consider and share. I am integrating this into my “Conspiracies and Culture Wars” media literacy inquiry project and will also be sharing it with my #ResistAndHeal community.
The second TEDx talk I watched, listened to, and reflected on is “The illusion of being connected” by General Stanley McChrystal:
Having spent a few years of my youth studying the history of military warfare, and being an ardent student of history throughout the ensuing years of my adult life as a professional educator, I found multiple touch points of General McChrystal’s talk compelling.
Comparing his own incredible digital connections in his operation center, as a commanding general in Iraq, to those of other commanding generals in previous conflicts was really thought-provoking.
His point was not just that high levels of connectivity can be illusionary, it was also an encouragement that each one of us needs to attend to the meaningful connections which we make every day and make habits in our lives.
My own father is now 85 years old, and he has been visually impaired for quite a while. One result of this is my dad talks on the phone a lot more than I do every day, and I think this is both a beautiful and wonderful thing. It’s a real gift for me to be able to talk to him at all now, especially since I can’t see him very often living 1000 miles away.
We are living in some really difficult, political and cultural times, and I regret that levels of political violence are on the rise and are just going to keep getting worse for the foreseeable future.
Yesterday I was able to virtually attend an hour long webinar by political scholar Timothy Snyder, hosted by our local chapter of Indivisible here in Charlotte. I highly commend this to you as well. Professor Snyder offers us a roadmap, collectively and individually, and one of the most important things we can do is build our real community with family, friends, and others who share our values.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NstAjO-wvOs
Give a listen to these and other TEDx talks from TEDxMidAtlantic:
https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=TEDxMidAtlantic
May we all strive to cultivate and build meaningful community connections today and in the week to come!