The TED-Talk Offensive

Having been introduced to TED Talks at work, I see them as a symbol of new feel-good, I-can-change-the-world-all-by-myself way of thinking.  I mean who would have imagined that people, both young and old, would willingly watch what are essentially lectures in their free time.  That right there is a sign of the last days.  They are cool, trendy, and hip.  They kind of have that Jesus Jones, Right Here, Right Now feel of watching the world wake up form history.

I also receive another message from TED Talks, that message is that I unsavagably suck.  Whatever mark I could have hoped to leave on this world, it is now blazing clear compliments of TED Talk, that I have missed that little boat.  Nope, the accomplishments of my life are merely doggie doody stains on the rug of this earth.  It may sounds harsh, but is there any other conclusion I can draw after watching any TED Talk?

Sure, I have a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, oh yah, and a Juris Doctorate.  Yes, I have studied and spoken three foreign languages, have helped found a religious organization in Outer Mongolia, not to mention being the Utah Slurpee Drinking champion.  Heck, I was even recently awarded a US patent. Yet, Professor Keating would rightfully decry all of these meager accomplishments as "Excrement!" (Dead Poets Society reference for all of you Millennials –  you can Google it after you have looked up Jesus Jones).

This is the message I get whenever I watch a TED Talk.  I have not found a way to quantum lock an object so that it truly levitates in the air.  I have not solved the African clean water problem with a plastic bottles and a box of Tic-Tacs.  I cannot be an 11 year-old who plays banjo better than Georgian-Johnny plays his fiddle for his soul.  I will never lash myself to a tree to save some three winged owl, neither have I discovered some mystic link to 4:00 AM and a college romance.  Nope.  I am older than the vast majority of these speakers and if it hasn’t happened yet, something special just aint’ a-coming from this point. 

I know that the TED Talks strive to show us the vast capabilities of the human spirit when they put their mind to it.  At the same time it is also comparative esteem killer.  Admittedly, I feel inspired in medias res, but when it comes time to translate that inspiration into action, then I see how truly hopeless my cause is. 

While I am tempted to go out and start my own rival self-esteem building organization called FRED-Talk, featuring stories of rednecks incinerating their grandmothers while on a quest for Dale Earnhardt commemorative Budweiser cans, perhaps there is a better way.  I think that we all can look in any direction and commit comparative self-esteem suicide.  I guess that is one of the risks we all have in life.  We tend to measure ourselves against the skills, abilities, genes, and even luck of others.  How unfair for all of us.  Nobody has it all.  I once knew a multi-millionaire who owned several extravagant houses, but liked to sleep on his friends couch, because he lost is family somewhere along the way and it felt like home. 

I think that the more I look people around me, the more I realize that we all have large gaps of things that we lack (except Hugh Jackman; he acts, sings, dances, AND is Wolverine – you don’t get cooler than that).  On the other hand we also each have deep wells of strengths to draw from.  I think the trick in life is to measure ourselves against our own wells of strength and ask if we are really measuring up to ourselves only in the areas we value.  That way as I watch a TED Talk with on the couch with the family I love, I can say that I am working toward the things I value with the skills that I have and not feel too much like I missed the boat, but more that I am on my own separate journey chartered just for me...

…and if my own words fail me, I can always look at pictures of “People of Walmart,” then VOILA self-esteem restored.