Me, myself and TED

I have been thinking recently. And when I say recently, I mean for about the last eight or nine months. Something is happening inside my head; something is moving towards a goal. I can't quite put it into words, but it is something along the lines of helping others on a mass scale, and halting evil in the world. I don't care how corny it is, because I feel that this change is not just applying to me.

The video below is of a video-conference as part of something called TED. Technology, Entertainment, Design. I have become obsessed with these conferences that cover an array of topics from Creativity in schools to the secret of Ragu Marketing to conspiracies about the term "4 in the morning". This is just a sample, albeit 20 minutes long.



These TED videos have stirred something inside of me that has been bubbling away for that eight-odd month period. Since this is a blog, it would be nice to be able to put it into words. So, at the risk of sounding like the naive Peter Petrelli of Heroes fame, here goes:

I have a purpose that I am unsure of. Up until now, I have been meandering about from A to B about where my path lies in life, as if I need to decide now before said life crumbles before my eyes and I end up a homeless bum on the streets of Ealing. To be fair, I am still meandering a bit, but I am not so tightly wound about my "destiny". All I know for now is that I want to do some good in the world. I like being happy, I like giving advice and I like making other people happy. The other day I sent a text to one of my friends telling them that "There's a rumour going around that you're amazing", and it felt great. Or, if someone asks me how I am, I make it a point to respond with something like "I'm Outstanding" or "I'm pretty close to spectacular" (thank you Andre 3000) or something unusually uplifting that catches them off guard in a most wondrous way.

I like these little things, and it makes me feel good about life, but there's also alot of stuff I detest right about now, and I think that's what occupies my mind more (it should, shouldn't it?)

As a brief glimpse, some of these things are: Robert Mugabe. The current and totally flawed education system in the UK and probably most of the world. The way western news treats the rest of the world as so...."other". The ineffectiveness of the UN.

Hmm, I have deleted alot of the stuff I was going to list, because you all know it. It's cliche stuff that a student whines about when he tries to open his eyes but it hurts too much.

Still, Mugabe is a dick.

I think, for some reason, there is a change in the mentality of a lot of people in the Western World. Something is slowly churning. Perhaps my generation is going to do something unique- good or bad I don't know- but I have such a strong feeling that the foundations of society are going to be different. People are fatigued with everything that is wrong. Vietnam, Rwanda, Katrina, Darfur, whatever. More and more people are getting fed up, and luckily less and less people are getting lethargic. Finally people want change, and it's in the works. Don't ask me how long it's going to take or when it's going to happen.

But it is going to happen.