A Small Blog

Thank goodness for TEDxSanAntonio! For the past two weeks we’ve been wallowing in #governmentshutdown and #debtdefault mania. But, along comes Saturday, and the TEDxSA event comes live to Rackspace and via webcast at three other venues. Now we can give our attention to speakers that ‘open our minds’ and inspire us to ‘think differently.’ All the idiocy of the past few weeks is momentarily forgotten as we listen to the intelligent, creative, and thought-provoking presentations.

The speaking styles and topics were as diverse as the speakers themselves. As I mulled over the four years I’ve attended TEDxSA, I realized that I gravitate more to the stories which strike a personal note with me–which is probably the case with everyone. And, while it’s good to listen and learn from many different points of interest, I’m sure each audience member, just like me, has their favorites.

I have always been interested in the possibility of humans getting their shit together enough to colonize outer space. So, I like Samuel Ximenes’ suggestion of making San Antonio the center of a lunar base development.

I’ve always loved Cary Clack as a storyteller and miss reading his columns in the newspaper. His message included the definition of nonviolence as ‘love in action.’ I think what the world needs now is love and he said it well.

Nelson Guda is an interesting person–both scientist and artist. He gave a powerful presentation, ‘walking from darkness into life’, about his journey to an epiphany through his art project.

Jason Fischer encouraged us to free ourselves from using the word “need.” That advice I took personally as well.

Except that we do need to talk about mental illness, especially when 1 in 5 children have a mental illness that affects their life. Lisa Long had a personal story about her son’s mental illness and how she has become an advocate for bringing this huge problem out of the closet and into treatment.

“We need (oops, there’s that word again) less fear about death and dying,” said Martha Atkins. (This one hitting close to home.)

‘Women are drawn to ‘bad boys’ when their estrogen levels are high’, said Kristina Durante, backing it up with science.  Well, finally, an explanation!

Here is a two minute recap from Rackspace

The audience and sponsor list increased over last year, and the number of persons who made it happen. Susan Price is still the marvelous organizer at the tip of the spear for this event. But, a great leader surrounds herself with great people.

Check the TEDxSanAntonio website for a full list of 2013 speakers and for all the speaker videos, which will be posted once they are edited.