[Music]
you
it says on your programs that I’m here
to talk to you today about the Battle of
our bodies throughout history well I was
a really angry girl when I wrote that
you see I just read this book this book
Caliban and the witch by Silvia Federici
and it basically talks about how agree
dearly have cooperated to sort of
oppress the poor over history and it’s
happened for thousands of years and and
there’s been a resistance so basically I
just learned that history was a
bloodbath and somehow I didn’t expect it
not sure but how about homes something
that I had already known in my heart of
hearts
basically that I’m probably not going to
save the world in my lifetime know how
much I wanted to and I’m sure that like
me you all at some point had dreams that
you were going to make the world a
better place through your actions
whether it be as a scientist or an
astronaut or a ballerina or in my case
you know getting up on the battlefield
gang everyone a big hug and putting out
well peace over a cup of tea but at some
point these dreams they get put to the
side and we start looking for a mortgage
trying to just get a job to support
ourselves there’s other stuff it goes
out the window and you know why is that
so my talk today it is about this battle
throughout history but it’s sort of
about the tug of war that created the
Society that forged our personalities
and how we owe it to ourselves to do
what we love see the history of the
world is the history of what lets us be
the greatest versions of ourselves but
to be the greatest versions of ourselves
we have to overcome whatever it is
that’s holding us back and you know what
better way to talk about that then an
analogy about awkward British people in
spring I had to take a ride with a girl
that I had never met before we were
worlds apart she was a friend of a
friend but we couldn’t be any different
any more different guys um grandma goes
out the window when you’re scared of
things and
well we connected on a really great
level because we’ve both been trying out
this really incredible meditation
technique called for partner you spend
10 days in silence however she had
noticed this unique part of the market
where British people because in silence
in 10 days we freaked out so much that
unlike anywhere else in the world we
need therapy alongside this meditation
technique and this was something about
earth and I’m sure I’ve asked each and
every one of you in this room why you
think people in this country are so
particularly awkward you’d all have a
different theory see some of my friends
pointed out stiff upper-lip stoicism and
how that makes us repress absolutely
everything instead of dealing with our
problems and I think about individualism
how we’re all expected to be perfect to
have everything and yet we’re flawed I
eat too much and I watch too much TV and
I really could go on but I won’t instead
I’m going to move on to talking about
things that could help us I want to talk
today about a concept that is being
celebrated increasingly around the world
this is Japanese eco guy it looks a bit
like this it’s a pretty simple formula
it’s broken down into four parts it’s
doing what you love doing what you’re
good at doing what you can be paid for
and doing what the world needs
it’s from Okinawa culture so in this
culture iki means life and Kai means the
realization of what one expects and
hopes for and here this concept is part
of the fabric of a happy and fulfilled
life anthropologist kind of have
observed it in Japan as down here
Okinawa Japan up here as this sort of
post-war effort of bringing building
citizenship and this means that then the
meaning of your personality is
intertwined with your society in the UK
we’re not going to be part of any big
citizenship building project that’s not
on our agenda so instead if a guy has
been marketed to us as fulfilling your
life through your individual purpose
your well-being your health and you know
cultural appropriation that’s not
necessarily
good thing however what I think this
highlights about British people instead
is a good thing and it’s something that
as a girl I’m really thankful for you
see we’ve come a really long way from
fifty years ago where I would not elect
be have been allowed to have the job I
love the partner I love and then to go
home and live like an absolute spinster
watching TV and eating pizza and all
that kind of stuff that I kind of like
but we fought really really hard to get
to where we are as people and we’re
still fighting today you see today I can
do what I want to do instead of what I
have to do to survive and in the whole
history of the world that’s quite
unusual see this is kind of edged on to
the history of our landscapes as well as
onto our own life I grew up in
Lincolnshire and I’m really interested
in herbalism and that’s part of the map
of Lincoln see if you walk down monks
Road those of you who know amongst RIT
is kind of just across the park cross
Linden Hill anyway those worries me Lane
Rosemary Lane is called this because
that’s where monks used to grow medicine
in the herbal garden this is the tithe
barn
if you cross the Usher Park again you go
up crease down steps you’ll see this
kind of old barn that’s been integrated
into the modern college but that’s where
for what little you could give you would
receive your medicine for the plague
Lincoln Cathedral overlooks the whole
city it sees what’s going on and yet at
his foot is where the victims of the
plague have been laid to rest however as
a woman I would not have been invited to
be a part of the medicinal narrative
which was trying to battle the plague
one of the greatest killers of our time
of time and I would be burned at the
stake as a witch CY was half of the
population just sort of excluded from a
narrative that was so important today I
don’t have to worry about that
see if I’m sick I can go to the doctor
I’m thankful for the NHS I’m thankful
for employees rights that means that I
don’t have to work in 90-hour week I’m
thankful for where my friends fall down
that they can turn to the welfare state
but this is stuff that we’ve had to
fight for and if we don’t cherish it we
can lose it last winter
I spent a night sleeping in the church
supervising as a church through opened
its doors to welcome in homeless Pete
you see in that part of London
homelessness is up by a third every year
in Lincoln on any given night if you
walk from the stone bow to the straight
and narrow there is a person in every
single doorway that needs your help see
why can I stand up here and talk about
how great society is and how we’re
working towards our greater Iker guy
when I am so mindful of the suffering
that is around us let’s return to this
this concept see it only feels good when
you fulfill all of these things not just
what you can be paid for or what you’re
good at but also doing what the world
needs if we return to the passion er and
this idea that we kind of suffer when
we’re confronted with ourselves in
silence I want to say that deprivation
of a home isn’t the only kind of
deprivation you have you see when you
see someone that needs your help and you
choose to do nothing that has a profound
impact on you but it has a profound
impact on the society as well you see
policies that penalize the poor work
fair universal credit section 21 these
are all signs that not enough of us
stand up anymore and say no this isn’t
good enough if we don’t do this then
this might continue see it’s hard to put
your head above the parapet but I’m not
saying that necessarily you need to do
that alone use the tools that I give you
today and the tools that I know that you
have inside of yourselves be happy
question your own actions even if it is
just for your own well-being if you do
what you truly want to do you will
fulfill your social action nikka guy I
hope that in future I can do that and
I’d be honored if you’d join me
you
you
it says on your programs that I’m here
to talk to you today about the Battle of
our bodies throughout history well I was
a really angry girl when I wrote that
you see I just read this book this book
Caliban and the witch by Silvia Federici
and it basically talks about how agree
dearly have cooperated to sort of
oppress the poor over history and it’s
happened for thousands of years and and
there’s been a resistance so basically I
just learned that history was a
bloodbath and somehow I didn’t expect it
not sure but how about homes something
that I had already known in my heart of
hearts
basically that I’m probably not going to
save the world in my lifetime know how
much I wanted to and I’m sure that like
me you all at some point had dreams that
you were going to make the world a
better place through your actions
whether it be as a scientist or an
astronaut or a ballerina or in my case
you know getting up on the battlefield
gang everyone a big hug and putting out
well peace over a cup of tea but at some
point these dreams they get put to the
side and we start looking for a mortgage
trying to just get a job to support
ourselves there’s other stuff it goes
out the window and you know why is that
so my talk today it is about this battle
throughout history but it’s sort of
about the tug of war that created the
Society that forged our personalities
and how we owe it to ourselves to do
what we love see the history of the
world is the history of what lets us be
the greatest versions of ourselves but
to be the greatest versions of ourselves
we have to overcome whatever it is
that’s holding us back and you know what
better way to talk about that then an
analogy about awkward British people in
spring I had to take a ride with a girl
that I had never met before we were
worlds apart she was a friend of a
friend but we couldn’t be any different
any more different guys um grandma goes
out the window when you’re scared of
things and
well we connected on a really great
level because we’ve both been trying out
this really incredible meditation
technique called for partner you spend
10 days in silence however she had
noticed this unique part of the market
where British people because in silence
in 10 days we freaked out so much that
unlike anywhere else in the world we
need therapy alongside this meditation
technique and this was something about
earth and I’m sure I’ve asked each and
every one of you in this room why you
think people in this country are so
particularly awkward you’d all have a
different theory see some of my friends
pointed out stiff upper-lip stoicism and
how that makes us repress absolutely
everything instead of dealing with our
problems and I think about individualism
how we’re all expected to be perfect to
have everything and yet we’re flawed I
eat too much and I watch too much TV and
I really could go on but I won’t instead
I’m going to move on to talking about
things that could help us I want to talk
today about a concept that is being
celebrated increasingly around the world
this is Japanese eco guy it looks a bit
like this it’s a pretty simple formula
it’s broken down into four parts it’s
doing what you love doing what you’re
good at doing what you can be paid for
and doing what the world needs
it’s from Okinawa culture so in this
culture iki means life and Kai means the
realization of what one expects and
hopes for and here this concept is part
of the fabric of a happy and fulfilled
life anthropologist kind of have
observed it in Japan as down here
Okinawa Japan up here as this sort of
post-war effort of bringing building
citizenship and this means that then the
meaning of your personality is
intertwined with your society in the UK
we’re not going to be part of any big
citizenship building project that’s not
on our agenda so instead if a guy has
been marketed to us as fulfilling your
life through your individual purpose
your well-being your health and you know
cultural appropriation that’s not
necessarily
good thing however what I think this
highlights about British people instead
is a good thing and it’s something that
as a girl I’m really thankful for you
see we’ve come a really long way from
fifty years ago where I would not elect
be have been allowed to have the job I
love the partner I love and then to go
home and live like an absolute spinster
watching TV and eating pizza and all
that kind of stuff that I kind of like
but we fought really really hard to get
to where we are as people and we’re
still fighting today you see today I can
do what I want to do instead of what I
have to do to survive and in the whole
history of the world that’s quite
unusual see this is kind of edged on to
the history of our landscapes as well as
onto our own life I grew up in
Lincolnshire and I’m really interested
in herbalism and that’s part of the map
of Lincoln see if you walk down monks
Road those of you who know amongst RIT
is kind of just across the park cross
Linden Hill anyway those worries me Lane
Rosemary Lane is called this because
that’s where monks used to grow medicine
in the herbal garden this is the tithe
barn
if you cross the Usher Park again you go
up crease down steps you’ll see this
kind of old barn that’s been integrated
into the modern college but that’s where
for what little you could give you would
receive your medicine for the plague
Lincoln Cathedral overlooks the whole
city it sees what’s going on and yet at
his foot is where the victims of the
plague have been laid to rest however as
a woman I would not have been invited to
be a part of the medicinal narrative
which was trying to battle the plague
one of the greatest killers of our time
of time and I would be burned at the
stake as a witch CY was half of the
population just sort of excluded from a
narrative that was so important today I
don’t have to worry about that
see if I’m sick I can go to the doctor
I’m thankful for the NHS I’m thankful
for employees rights that means that I
don’t have to work in 90-hour week I’m
thankful for where my friends fall down
that they can turn to the welfare state
but this is stuff that we’ve had to
fight for and if we don’t cherish it we
can lose it last winter
I spent a night sleeping in the church
supervising as a church through opened
its doors to welcome in homeless Pete
you see in that part of London
homelessness is up by a third every year
in Lincoln on any given night if you
walk from the stone bow to the straight
and narrow there is a person in every
single doorway that needs your help see
why can I stand up here and talk about
how great society is and how we’re
working towards our greater Iker guy
when I am so mindful of the suffering
that is around us let’s return to this
this concept see it only feels good when
you fulfill all of these things not just
what you can be paid for or what you’re
good at but also doing what the world
needs if we return to the passion er and
this idea that we kind of suffer when
we’re confronted with ourselves in
silence I want to say that deprivation
of a home isn’t the only kind of
deprivation you have you see when you
see someone that needs your help and you
choose to do nothing that has a profound
impact on you but it has a profound
impact on the society as well you see
policies that penalize the poor work
fair universal credit section 21 these
are all signs that not enough of us
stand up anymore and say no this isn’t
good enough if we don’t do this then
this might continue see it’s hard to put
your head above the parapet but I’m not
saying that necessarily you need to do
that alone use the tools that I give you
today and the tools that I know that you
have inside of yourselves be happy
question your own actions even if it is
just for your own well-being if you do
what you truly want to do you will
fulfill your social action nikka guy I
hope that in future I can do that and
I’d be honored if you’d join me
you
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