Follow Your Dreams.

This sounds rather simple, and the truth: IT IS.  Today we all are running around at nine million miles an hour constantly doing things we think are SO important and meaningful, when in reality if we stopped, slowed down and focused on one thing at a time we would be able to see the bigger picture.


"The essence of leadership is being able to see the ice burg before it hits the Titanic." Huffington says in this talk.

She's right!  By constantly pushing our bodies to the brink every day we begin to literally walk around like the living dead.  Being a zombi gets you nowhere accept blown apart by Bruce Campbell's Boom-stick.

Not to mention dreams.  Living in constant reality does not give the body time dream and dreams are extremely important.  Through dreams humans are able to grasp beyond everyday  life and imagine the unimaginable.  People learn what they are to live for, what they want to strive for and most importantly they learn who they want to become.  I believe Arianna Huffington merely scratched the surface with this issue.  It is only through our dreams that we are able to conceptualize what we want our world to become.

I feel there is no better way to end my 30 days than on a note about dreams.  I have so many for this blog, and for my own future.  Without a doubt this challenge has enriched my experiences and given me entirely new perspectives on things I never would have heard about otherwise.  I am proud to say that I have completed this challenge and look forward to passing the blog off to the next student.

Best wishes! And don't forget to Dream big!

Chelsey L. Hughes

The Washing Machine, Best Invention EVER!

This is a change to learn something.  The washing machine used so heavily by your mother, your grandmother and the women before them is quite possibly the greatest invention to come from the industrial revolution, or at least that's how Hans Rosling feels.  The cool thing I liked about this talk was how interactive the washing machine was.  By placing a human inside and having them hand out things the machine honestly came to life on stage.  This talk is something that should be seen as a great way subtly implement drama into public speaking.  Among all Rosling's good points were hidden gems of surprise and captivation through live movement.

Note:  I find it interesting that this TedTalk is found under TedWomen... A man speaks for this talk and yet for some reason... only women do laundry?  I don't know how I feel about this.  I feel men are perfectly capable of handling laundering and although I almost always love everything that comes from TED this was questionable on basis of being sexist?  Or was it?  Hmmm I'm not sure.  Either way Rosling does make a good point and the drama behind his plea is worth watching.

Number 9, Nike's "The Girl Effect".

My number nine in Teds 10 ads worth watching:





"This ad uses animation brilliantly to make clear the benefits of investing in a single worthy cause. It sheds light -- and hope -- on one of the most overlooked, yet promising, assets on this planet: 12-year-old girls."- TEDtalk


For those of you who still think Nike is up to no good, try this one one for size.  Nike's three minuet long kinetic type video launches their idea for, "The Girl Effect".  The interesting thing, they don't even say their name in the commercial.  I find it amazing that company with a pretty poor PR rep wouldn't plaster themselves all over this, yet they do not.  maybe that's supposed to be the idea?

While this is an awesome example of kinetic type, I feel this ad could stop about 2 min in, but it keeps going.  I feel it becomes almost too overstated yet the point is made.  Young girls need our help.

Watch and let me know what YOU think...

Where has All the Wisdom Gone?

"... elder voices from the far corners of the world, to call the world into balance. You will go far away.  It will sometimes be a lonely road.  We will not be there, but you will look into the eyes of seeming strangers and you will recognize your Ohana, you family, and it will take all of you."

It’s been said that when an elder dies, it’s as if a library is burned. Anthropologist Elizabeth Lindsey, a National Geographic Fellow, collects the deep cultural knowledge passed down as stories and lore. (Recorded at TEDWomen, December 2010, in Washington, DC. Duration: 10:13)






"The year is 2010... we are in trouble..."  Lindsey not only feverishly tells the story of where she comes from in this video she reminds all of us that there are lessons to be learned from those who have gone before us.  Lessons that should be not taken lightly, but listened and learned from.


Too many times, I feel, we write our elderly off and force them to live in a home, tell them they are crazy, or consider them a loon.  This should not be so.  Wisdom comes from experience and experience may only be gained through living.


To you I ask only this:


What story might your grandmother tell you about life that you never would have learned without her?


What day does you grandfather hold dear?


Once you've reached a certain age... are memories all you have left?


Image: 1930's Polynesian Woman  

What Defines You?

  

Self discovery.  Who are you really?  In this video Madeleine Albright does talk extensively on what it's like to be a female democrat, but she hits on something even more interesting in the opening of this discussion.  Who am I? What defines me as a person?  Madeleine tells as story about when she was speaking in against Saddam Hussein's country and the next day the a poem in the newspapers compared her to many things but among them  "an un paralleled serpent". She then goes on to talk about how she happened to have a snake pin, and wore it for the press every time she spoke.  

Rather than be offended by the acusation this became one of Madeleine Albright's trademarks.  In the video Madeleine goes on and on to talking about all sorts of things but I just couldn't get passed the idea in question, "What characteristic defines me?"  Think about it.  If you were turned into a symbol what would it be?  Personally, I have no idea what I would be? (Haha, and I really want to know.)  That's the best part though.  You can't tell yourself, it's what the world says for you!

This is a question about looking into your soul and learning what it is about yourself that everyone will remember.  This question pulls at the strings of your character with an answer being simple and blatantly obvious.  What do you think you are?  Has anyone ever defined you?  Did you like it?  If not, or if so doesn't really matter, what do you want to be remembered as? 

I have it! Moose Tracks Ice cream.  Cold when I need to be, full of tasty hidden nuggets, and always trying to make people smile!  :)

Because Sometimes Laughter Really is the Best Medicine

As a women we are imprinted from birth how to think, see and feel constantly by the culture in which we in find ourselves in.  In this inspiring TedTALK though, Liza Donnelly shows that women in the media do have the power to cultivate positive change through joy and laughter.  I don't know if I exactly agree with her ideas, but, perhaps by me not agreeing I am really just saying, I'm one of the many stuck in a mold of "Political Correctness"  too worried about who and how I may speak, and less concerned with the actual issues at hand. Worrying about offense creates too many mental barriers and often never allows the real problems to be heard. (Interesting how even as my fingers strike the keys, the words still seem like concepts I should possibly hold my tongue over for fear of being labeled "unworthy" or "offensive").   

Donnelly suggests that perhaps we are too "Politically Correct" to begin with.  Maybe this world needs a few good media queens to take the reins and show the country how they can "loosen up a bit"?  Look at John Stewart and Steven Colbert, where's insert name of woman? 

The rules of society have been laid down long ago.  What if rather than terror and guns war raged with, laughter and joy? What if the media could become the next great bullet of revolution?

Thoughts?