[Music]
can you believe I’m gonna talk about
four-letter words you’re thinking you
already know all about those four-letter
words but it’s not what you’re thinking
these four-letter words all relate to
the life we live these are words that
guide me and I hope that guide others
through this journey of self-discovery
you see I have the best job in the world
I teach therefore I learn here are some
of the things I’ve learned life
Confucius said life is really simple but
we insist on making it complicated I
respectfully disagree I think life is
very complicated life is filled with
turmoil I have observed life through my
own living I have observed life through
my students they have taught me things
I’ve observed for a number of years and
I see them looking they’re looking for a
major they’re looking for their identity
they’re looking for easy courses
they’re looking at their phones a lot
they are like sponges they are looking
to soak in life and learning I listen to
them I hear them talk about grades I
hear them talk about their life plans I
hear them talk about their money woes I
hear them talk about their parents I
hear them talk about losing things their
IDs their keys their phones but when I
heard him talk about their life plans my
students made me think life plan am I
too old to have one of those life plans
I wonder perhaps I had one of those life
plans and I don’t remember it I don’t
think so I mean I’ve heard of game plans
for sports I’ve heard of architectural
plans
unfortunately I’ve heard of retirement
plans I’ve certainly heard of lesson
plans so I’ve decided to check things
out here’s what I found
there are many perspectives on life
there’s the philosophical perspective in
which we wonder what is our meaning in
life what’s the significance of life we
wonder we wonder about ourselves we
wonder about others there’s an ethical
perspective of life this is all about
making good decisions in consideration
for the greater good of others that
should be easy there’s a medical
perspective of life here’s where they
look at what marks the beginning of life
and what marks the end
life that one’s not so easy there’s a
scientific perspective on life life
beyond humans microscopic life life in
the universe that one I’ll leave to
Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson
there’s a spiritual perspective in which
we think about what is guiding our life
what about the afterlife how it’s nice
to think about then there’s a
pessimistic versus an optimistic view of
life it’s the view of the life plan how
do we look at life I prefer the
optimistic life first simple four-letter
word it is so powerful we use it in so
many ways we could say the miracle of
life it’s a wonderful life life’s a
beach
[Music]
what alive or what a life here’s how I
see or hear people talk about their life
plans particularly my students it’s so
smooth so upward so easy I’ve lived long
enough to share with you the real life
it has ups it has downs
it has twists it has turns it is not
smooth it is bumpy sometimes you go a
little forward sometimes a little
backward it’s not easy at all and
sometimes it just makes you sick there’s
another perspective on life comes from
the book the wise is one in the room
it’s written by Thomas Gilovich and Lee
Ross and they have a nice quote in this
book it says the meaning of life is to
find our gift the purpose of life is to
give it away I like that
but sometimes the hard part is finding
your gift then there’s love love
surrounds life throughout our life we
have many people we love we love many
things love can make us ecstatic love
can make us miserable we talked about
looking for love but it’s not tangible
there are songs about love found about
love lost and of course the all elusive
love
most people can’t even imagine a life
without love it’s funny to think though
we have one life but we love many and
we’d love often
dictionary.com has a definition that
defines love is a profoundly tender
passionate affection for another person
I think it’s odd that they limit that
definition to another person only love’s
been around a long time the Greeks had
eros and Aphrodite well the Romans had
Cupid and Venus as their gods and
goddesses of love the Romans also loved
a thing they loved wine and they had
Bacchus to represent that love I kind of
have a love for wine myself
that’s the next four-letter Oh gotcha I
just wanted to see if you were listening
so like like love luck is a part of life
we all hope to get lucky in life many
years ago my husband held a fantastic
job working with the NFL people said he
was lucky you know he got to go to all
these Super Bowl games
he flew first-class sometimes in
corporate jets he got to eat at the
finest restaurants across the country
he felt lucky then came a plane crash he
was piloting a single-engine aircraft
and it crashed shortly after takeoff he
thought he was engulfed in flames but
that was because of the trauma that he
suffered to his spine doesn’t sound so
lucky anymore however he was lucky to be
alive and quickly taken to a nearby
hospital for immediate spinal surgery
because of those extensive injuries with
a long rehabilitation time he’d lost
that job with the NFL not so lucky after
a couple of years he was lucky to be
able to walk again he secured advanced
education followed by more great
corporate jobs he was lucky
you see luck has many faces so let’s go
to the next for that word hope my
students are great at hope
they hope to get A’s they will tell you
all the time they hope to keep their
scholarships they hope for a lot of
things we all have hope hope is part of
life hope is what keeps us optimistic
like one of the perspectives on life
hope is what keeps us trying some people
hope for luck
some people hope for love some people
hope for death
I had hoped I would never have to give a
TED talk but here I am then there’s time
you know time is intangible too we speak
it’s a finding time making time spending
time but we can’t do any of those in a
concrete way you know like life like
love and like hope we don’t know how
much time we have every one of our our
glasses are a different size
there’s a wonderful porn by Linda Ellis
called the dash and in it she makes us
realize that we are living our – every
single day and we don’t know when the
end of that – will come think about that
so you see it’s all closely connected we
can have one or think about one without
the others the American author Joseph
Campbell said it beautifully he said we
must let go of the life we have planned
so as to accept the one that is waiting
for us here’s what I think I think there
is no life plan there’s a life idea we
just live we live with love we live with
luck we live with hope for a time my
idea worth sharing life well maybe it’s
just an acronym
maybe it’s little instances frustrating
everyone
a life plan I don’t think so
but you do I did discover one thing you
can plan for one are you ready for this
wait for it the one thing you can plan
for a surprises I hope all of your lives
are filled with good surprises thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
can you believe I’m gonna talk about
four-letter words you’re thinking you
already know all about those four-letter
words but it’s not what you’re thinking
these four-letter words all relate to
the life we live these are words that
guide me and I hope that guide others
through this journey of self-discovery
you see I have the best job in the world
I teach therefore I learn here are some
of the things I’ve learned life
Confucius said life is really simple but
we insist on making it complicated I
respectfully disagree I think life is
very complicated life is filled with
turmoil I have observed life through my
own living I have observed life through
my students they have taught me things
I’ve observed for a number of years and
I see them looking they’re looking for a
major they’re looking for their identity
they’re looking for easy courses
they’re looking at their phones a lot
they are like sponges they are looking
to soak in life and learning I listen to
them I hear them talk about grades I
hear them talk about their life plans I
hear them talk about their money woes I
hear them talk about their parents I
hear them talk about losing things their
IDs their keys their phones but when I
heard him talk about their life plans my
students made me think life plan am I
too old to have one of those life plans
I wonder perhaps I had one of those life
plans and I don’t remember it I don’t
think so I mean I’ve heard of game plans
for sports I’ve heard of architectural
plans
unfortunately I’ve heard of retirement
plans I’ve certainly heard of lesson
plans so I’ve decided to check things
out here’s what I found
there are many perspectives on life
there’s the philosophical perspective in
which we wonder what is our meaning in
life what’s the significance of life we
wonder we wonder about ourselves we
wonder about others there’s an ethical
perspective of life this is all about
making good decisions in consideration
for the greater good of others that
should be easy there’s a medical
perspective of life here’s where they
look at what marks the beginning of life
and what marks the end
life that one’s not so easy there’s a
scientific perspective on life life
beyond humans microscopic life life in
the universe that one I’ll leave to
Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson
there’s a spiritual perspective in which
we think about what is guiding our life
what about the afterlife how it’s nice
to think about then there’s a
pessimistic versus an optimistic view of
life it’s the view of the life plan how
do we look at life I prefer the
optimistic life first simple four-letter
word it is so powerful we use it in so
many ways we could say the miracle of
life it’s a wonderful life life’s a
beach
[Music]
what alive or what a life here’s how I
see or hear people talk about their life
plans particularly my students it’s so
smooth so upward so easy I’ve lived long
enough to share with you the real life
it has ups it has downs
it has twists it has turns it is not
smooth it is bumpy sometimes you go a
little forward sometimes a little
backward it’s not easy at all and
sometimes it just makes you sick there’s
another perspective on life comes from
the book the wise is one in the room
it’s written by Thomas Gilovich and Lee
Ross and they have a nice quote in this
book it says the meaning of life is to
find our gift the purpose of life is to
give it away I like that
but sometimes the hard part is finding
your gift then there’s love love
surrounds life throughout our life we
have many people we love we love many
things love can make us ecstatic love
can make us miserable we talked about
looking for love but it’s not tangible
there are songs about love found about
love lost and of course the all elusive
love
most people can’t even imagine a life
without love it’s funny to think though
we have one life but we love many and
we’d love often
dictionary.com has a definition that
defines love is a profoundly tender
passionate affection for another person
I think it’s odd that they limit that
definition to another person only love’s
been around a long time the Greeks had
eros and Aphrodite well the Romans had
Cupid and Venus as their gods and
goddesses of love the Romans also loved
a thing they loved wine and they had
Bacchus to represent that love I kind of
have a love for wine myself
that’s the next four-letter Oh gotcha I
just wanted to see if you were listening
so like like love luck is a part of life
we all hope to get lucky in life many
years ago my husband held a fantastic
job working with the NFL people said he
was lucky you know he got to go to all
these Super Bowl games
he flew first-class sometimes in
corporate jets he got to eat at the
finest restaurants across the country
he felt lucky then came a plane crash he
was piloting a single-engine aircraft
and it crashed shortly after takeoff he
thought he was engulfed in flames but
that was because of the trauma that he
suffered to his spine doesn’t sound so
lucky anymore however he was lucky to be
alive and quickly taken to a nearby
hospital for immediate spinal surgery
because of those extensive injuries with
a long rehabilitation time he’d lost
that job with the NFL not so lucky after
a couple of years he was lucky to be
able to walk again he secured advanced
education followed by more great
corporate jobs he was lucky
you see luck has many faces so let’s go
to the next for that word hope my
students are great at hope
they hope to get A’s they will tell you
all the time they hope to keep their
scholarships they hope for a lot of
things we all have hope hope is part of
life hope is what keeps us optimistic
like one of the perspectives on life
hope is what keeps us trying some people
hope for luck
some people hope for love some people
hope for death
I had hoped I would never have to give a
TED talk but here I am then there’s time
you know time is intangible too we speak
it’s a finding time making time spending
time but we can’t do any of those in a
concrete way you know like life like
love and like hope we don’t know how
much time we have every one of our our
glasses are a different size
there’s a wonderful porn by Linda Ellis
called the dash and in it she makes us
realize that we are living our – every
single day and we don’t know when the
end of that – will come think about that
so you see it’s all closely connected we
can have one or think about one without
the others the American author Joseph
Campbell said it beautifully he said we
must let go of the life we have planned
so as to accept the one that is waiting
for us here’s what I think I think there
is no life plan there’s a life idea we
just live we live with love we live with
luck we live with hope for a time my
idea worth sharing life well maybe it’s
just an acronym
maybe it’s little instances frustrating
everyone
a life plan I don’t think so
but you do I did discover one thing you
can plan for one are you ready for this
wait for it the one thing you can plan
for a surprises I hope all of your lives
are filled with good surprises thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: