My favorite class is gym.I can't wait for 's really fun,fun,fun.
I love to get out of class.I need a break from fells great to move all look forward to 's a chance to 's like an escape to freedom.
We have gym twice a wear T-shirts and play both inside and starts off with exercise.
We stretch,bend and 's always important to warm do jumping do push-ups and we jog around the track.
Finally,the real fun divide into play sports and compete.I like basketball and dodge ball.
I enjoy badminton and ping-pong,er is the most exciting to or lose,it's e's no pressure at all.
That's why I love gym class so much.
I love my motherland There is abeatiful country standing in the east of the has red soil,big mountains,long rivers and hardworking people,she is just like adiamond,shinning all the time,and she is my dearest country---China!
I love my motherland!Because Ilove the different races of my country!Each race has its own culture and people are kindhearted,some people are ggenerous,some people are ay,I can''t display evry race of my country,but what Iwant to tell you is that the Chinese people are use of them,our motherland is developing day by country is becoming much stronger tham before.
My country has so many great places of interest,which is known not only to every citizen,but also to the the foreigners talk about China,they all extend their thums and a is afamous and fantastic country!Yes,that''s ture!We have the Great Wall,the world''s second longest river,the oldest history and the most glorious wa all know,China is one of the largest countries in the world,when it is snowing in the north,the flowers have come out in the south,when the people in the south are enjoying the sunshine on the beach,the people in the north are skiing on the marvelous it is!So now Ican speak to the world loudly My country is really great!My country is really beautiful!
Goodafternoon: Teachers!
Today, I`m very happy to make a speech here. Now, let
me introduce myself. My name is ZhuRuijie. My English name is Molly. I`m 12. I come from Class1 Grade 6 of TongPu Primary School. I`m an active girl. I like playing basketball. Because I think it`s very interesting. I`d like to eat potatoes. They`re tasty. My favourite colour is green. And I like math best. It`s fun. On the weekend, I like reading books in my room. I have a happy family. My father is tall and mother is hardworking and tall, too. My brother is smart. And I`m a good student. My dream is to be a teacher, because I want to help the poor children in the future. Thank you for listening! Please remember me! Thank you!
My favorite class is gym.I cant wait for s really fun,fun,fun. I love to get out of class.I need a break from fells great to move all look forward to s a chance to s like an escape to freedom. We have gym twice a wear Tshirts and play both inside and starts off with exercise. We stretch,bend and s always important to warm do jumping do pushups and we jog around the track. Finally,the real fun divide into play sports and compete.I like basketball and dodge ball. I enjoy badminton and pingpong,er is the most exciting
to or lose,its es no pressure at all. Thats why I love gym class so much.
I am one of the small and delicate electronic products. In my family, everyone has different types, shapes and complete functions. I can help people to give a call, send messages, surf the internet and do many other things. Now, do you know who am I ? Yes, I’m a mobile phone – one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century.
Nowadays, many people regard me as a best friend for them. And I have gradually become a necessary part of the lives of many people. I make it easy to contact the people you're looking for wherever you are. Besides, it is free for you to enjoy the wonderful music or films at any time with my help. What’smore, you can always know the latest information, and leave the wonderful moments of your life at any time. And I also have many other functions, such as navigation, Notepad, Internet, calendar, alarm clock, calculator, sound recording, and camera. People’s spare lives have become modern and convenient with me.
However, in the other hand, some parents and teachers don’t like me. Because their children and students spend a lot of time in playing mobile phone games, and sending messages when they are studying. What’s worse, some bad guys use me to cheat money with sending false information. But these are not enough, some people also accuse me of letting many people indiffenet to their family and friends, due to the mobile phone calls and messages have replaced the face to face greetings in many cases. So many parents and teachers angrily throw me on the ground or in a box.
Frankly speaking, I feel so frustrated. Because I’m just a machine with many functions. As a coin has two sides, only the proper use of me and the good use of me can give me all my strengths.
Thank you for your appreciation!
Dear teachers and classmates:
I am very glad to make a speech here in this class ! This time, I'd like to talk something about English.My topic is I Love English.
As everyone knows,English is very important today.It has been used everywhere in the world.It has become the most common language on Internet and for international trade. If we can speak English well,we will have more chance to succeed.Because more and more people have taken notice of it,the number of the people who go to learn English has increased at a high speed. But for myself,I learn English not only because of its importance and its usefulness,but also because of my love for it.When I learn English, I can feel a different way of thinking which gives me more room to touch the world.When I read English novels,I can feel the pleasure from the book which is different from reading the translation.When I speak English, I can feel the confident from my words.When I write English,I can see the beauty which is not the same as our Chinese...
I love English,it gives me a colorful dream.I hope I can travel around the world one day. With my good English, I can make friends with many people from different contries.I can see many places of great intrests.I dream that I can go to London,because it is the birth place of English. I also want to use my good English to introduce our great places to the English spoken people,I hope that they can love our country like us. I know, Rome was not built in a day. I believe that after continuous hard study, one day I can speak English very well. If you want to be loved, you should learn to love and be lovable. So I believe as I love English everyday , it will love me too.
I am sure that I will realize my dream one day! Thank you!
I'm Lai Senhan from the University of International Business & Economics. Do you know what date is it today? Today is the Olympic Date. I'm so glad to stand here today to share my idea about Beijing Olympic Games together with you all. The title of my speech is: what can we do for Beijing Olympic Games?
First of all, let me tell you a story that happened 2 years ago. At the end of August, 2015, when I decided to come to Beijing for study, my friends helx x xxewell Party for me. They said: after your graduation, you should look for a job in Beijing, and then in 2015, we shall go to visit you during the Olympic Games. I laughed and answered: OK, no problem!
Time flied and 2 years passed. Now I am a graduate. My teachers and classmates always ask me: what's your plan after your graduation? Go back home, stay in Beijing, or go to some other places? And I always answer: I will stay in Beijing. I make this decision not because of my promise to my friends 2 years ago, but because: I've fallen in love with Beijing! I'm eager to welcome the coming Olympic Games together with my fellow countrymen, and I wish I could do something for the Olympics & for the city.
As we know, Beijing
What Kind of animal am I?
I was born in a small river. When I was young, the river was my home. I didn't know my parents. But I had hundreds of brothers and sisters. I swam sbout with them all day.
At that time I didn't look like my parents. I had no legs, but I had a ling tail. So I looked like a fish.
Then my tail became shorter, and now I have four legs and a very short tail.
I know I'm going to have no tail at all soon, I'm going to be like my parents, then I'm going to jump out of the water. I'm going to live on the land or in the water, too. I'm going to eat a lot of insects. So I'm good for people.
My Pet
When I was a child, I really want a pet, like ducks, rabbits, cats, dogs, even a pig!
Finally, my parents bought me a puppy as my birthday gift. I really love it, it was really lovely. When I was tired, it always made me happy. I take it for a walk every evening. I was very happy when we get together.
In a word, pets can bring us a lot of fun, they are important to us.
当我还是个孩子的.时候，我真的很想要只宠物，例如鸭子、兔子、猫咪、小狗、甚至是小猪!
后来，我爸妈买了只小狗给我做生日礼物。我真得很喜爱它。它真得很可爱。
当我很累时，它总会让我快乐。每天晚上我都会带它出去走走。我们在一起的时候很快乐。
总之，宠物们可以带给我们快乐，它们对我们很重要。
It's a great honor for me to stand here to deliver a speech to you. Then today I want to talk something about dreams and reality.
As the famous Russian litterateur Lev Tolstoy said, “Ideal is the beacon. Without ideal, there is no secure direction; without a direction, there is no life.” So there’s no doubt that everyone needs his or her own ideal. Have you ever thought that what is practical and sensible will connect with our most treasured dreams? Maybe, to somebody, reality has little relation to ideal. To others nothing can be done without the sense of reality. So make our dreams a part of our reality. And make our reality a part of our dreams. There is no reason why our dreams must oppose our reality. Improve our dreams and our reality by bringing them together.
As a university student, establishing a dream is one of the most important things we have to do .But everyone must see the reality clearly at first. Your family condition, your personal ability, your social intercourse, your subject and the job you want to do, these things show you the reality and lead you to establish a dream.
Further more, difficult or otherwise, we should put the power of reality into our dreams. Last but not least remember to work hard at the task of chasing our dreams. Do believe that we can achieve our ideal step by step by the passage of time!
In the end, I want to share with you a poetry named " I think I can".
Maybe you can not understand the meaning of the poetry , But do not be worried ,Let me tell you the meaning
Thank you for your listening!
——小学生英语演讲稿3分钟 (菁华3篇)
As we all know, communication is one of the most essential social skills that we need for our self development. Communicating with all
understanding always contributes to a deep touch between peoples' heart. Today, I am going to talk about how to communicate with classmates.To start with, you need to realize that your classmates are just in the same age of you. So be relaxed and nature. You are not too much smarter or outstanding than others and either are they! When you talk with them, remember to mention somMy favorite book is (Italian: Cuore). This is a diary written by an Italian boy Enrico. The diary is about his life and study. It included various touching stories that happened around Enrico, the mottos taught by his parents, as well as the wonderful ten "monthly" stories told by his teacher during the class. Every word in the chapter describes the word "love". From patriotism to friendship, and to the love between parents and child -- really touching.
This novel taught me how to love, and how to learn from love. I really like this book very much. How about you? What is your favorite book?My favorite book is . Have you read it before?Oh, I haven't read this book before. What is it about?
Well, it is a story of a rich girl who maintained her noble character after the bankruptcy of her father. The story is happy ending.
Can you tell us why you love this book so much?
Sure. It is because the story taught us to be brave and to face the challenges and difficulties with courage. I am dee* impressed by the strength and perseverance of the little princess in the story. I have decided to learn from her from now on.
Oh I see, the story sounds very good. I cannot wait to read this book as well.
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
hello everyone!it is my great pleasure to share my dream with you today.
my dream is to become a teacher.
you know being a teacher is a thing that is very valuable and very interesting.i suggest that it must be a great fun to be with children all the if i am a teacher，i can teach my students a lot of might become stronger and cleverer because of is a very contented feeling.
china is a developing ese are not that excellent in their teachers in china might be very very can provide the society with a lot of successful people，and make china a better place.
do you think that i have a good dream?i will work hard to make my dream become true!
thanks~
这是我很高兴能够分享我的梦想与你今天。
我的梦想是成为一名教师。
你知道作为一个教师，是一个东西，这是非常宝贵的，非常有趣。我认为它必须是一个伟大的乐趣与子女所有。如果我是一名教师，我可以教我的学生很多知识。他们可能会成为强大和聪明，因为我了。这是一个非常知足的感觉。
*是一个发展*家。*人是不是优秀，在他们的智能。所以老师在*可能非常非常重要的。他们可以提供社会了不少成功的人，使*成为更美好的地方。
你认为我有一个很好的梦想，我将努力工作，使我的梦想变成真！
My favorite class is gym.I cant wait for s really fun,fun,fun.
I love to get out of class.I need a break from fells great to move all look forward to s a chance to s like an escape to freedom.
We have gym twice a wear T-shirts and play both inside and starts off with exercise.
We stretch,bend and s always important to warm do jumping do push-ups and we jog around the track.
Finally,the real fun divide into play sports and compete.I like basketball and dodge ball.
I enjoy badminton and ping-pong,er is the most exciting to or lose,its es no pressure at all.
Thats why I love gym class so much.
——小学生英语演讲稿3分钟范文 (菁华3篇)
演讲稿也叫演讲词，它是在较为隆重的仪式上和某些公众场合发表的讲话文稿。 演讲稿是进行演讲的依据，是对演讲内容和形式的规范和提示，它体现着演讲的目的和手段。演讲稿是人们在工作和社会生活中经常使用的一种文体。它可以用来交流思想、感情，表达 主张、见解；也可以用来介绍自己的学*、工作情况和经验等等；演讲稿具有宣传、鼓动、教育和欣赏等作用，它可以把演讲者的`观点、主张与思想感情传达给听众以及读者，使他们信服并在思想感情上产生共鸣。
演讲稿的格式由称谓、开场白、主干、结尾等几部分组成。在现在的社会生活中，用到演讲稿的地方越来越多，怎么写演讲稿才能避免踩雷呢？以下是小编为大家收集的小学生英语演讲稿3分钟（精选41篇），仅供参考，大家一起来看看吧。
everyone has ndship is very important in our is your best friend?
m y best friend is is is one of my is sweet,funny is almost as tall as i am,but she wears glasses all day.
we have some things in live in the same lives in building three,and i live in building often play weekends we like to play times we fly kites or go shopping at the supermarket and buy some if the sun does not shine,we play inside the all like barbie dolls listening to the music,watching tv,,or playing com*r games we have a lot of fun.
——小学生英语演讲稿2分钟 (菁华3篇)
A man was going to the house of some rich person. As he went along the road, he saw a box of good apples at the side of the road. He said, "I do not want to eat those apples; for the rich man will give me much food; he will give me very nice food to eat." Then he took the apples and threw them away into the dust.
He went on and came to a river. The river had become very big; so he could not go over it. He waited for some time; then he said, "I cannot go to the rich man's house today, for I cannot get over the river."
He began to go home. He had eaten no food that day. He began to want food. He came to the apples, and he was glad to take them out of the dust and eat them.
Do not throw good things away; you may be glad to have them at some other time.
小学英语课前两分钟演讲内容 小学英语课前两分钟演讲内容 大家好，今天轮到我演讲，我要讲的题目是我的寒假生活。 in the winter im very happy. i saw a lot of animals，such as chickens, cattle, sheep,and beautiful fireworks。in the new years day, i got a lot of lucky money,so im very happy。finally, happy new year everyone! 在寒假我过得非常开心，在寒假中我看看到了许多动物，有鸡、牛、羊等。还看见了很多漂亮的烟花。在年初一，我还得到了许多压岁钱，我非常开心。最后，祝大家新年快乐!
hello,everyone! today i am very happy,because i can talk about with you.you see i am e their lives because of water.if we take good care of our earth today,it will be more beautiful tomorrow. my dear friend let us start from the trivial side,to be a good kid keeper.
——mydream英语演讲稿3分钟 (菁华3篇)
Dear,
Wide sea diving, the days of the birds to fly. Everyone carries a dream of their own.
However, what is the dream? What is dream? Dream is looking forward to, and the dream is strong - is fleeting dream you insist on the ideal as their courage and perseverance, are you responsible for their own highest level. But ask yourself, how many of us to accomplish his original dream in mind?
Our dream is a simple belief, is a future and life of their own responsibility. Perhaps, is the Youth grand ambitions; perhaps, is the adolescent confusion and impulsive; maybe just a plain desire, desire applause, eager for success. Countless "may," innumerable "hope" because of our youthful full of miracles, large and small dreams in our hearts, in every corner of life filled with fragrance.
Only the ideal but no effort is useless. If you want to be a teacher, you should to study hard. If you want to be a player, you should do more exercises. If you want to become a businessman, he should learn to get along with people. For example, my wish is to be a famous writer grew up, because I really love writing, so from now on, I should read more, more accumulate knowledge, and strive to improve writing level. No pains, no gains, because my efforts, so my article was punished in many newspapers , and in many composition contest, I see the success Im happy, so, struggle is the bridge to the ideal.
Yes, my dream. to give my famliy a warm, give my friend happy. Yes, my dream. The podium from the first station began his love this place, started from the first published an article looking forward to the world of words, decided to stay here from the beginning, stick to bottom of my heart desire.
Years in our faces no matter how many additional traces, no matter how much things to us across the chest wounds, as long as we have the right to breathe, to have a passion for remodeling dreams! Oxygen to survive as long as we have to have the courage to create a passion!
Choose to continue, select the value, select the achievements of the passion of life, the brave hearts of the initial dream of success!
Good afternoon:
Honorable judges,dear teachers and close friends.I’m very glad to stand here to share my speech with you.Today I’m going to talk about dreams.
Everyone has a dream.Martin Luther King had a dream-and we can all recall his Civil Rights Speech.Phil Knight had a dream-and now the whole world knows his Nike Slogan“Just Do It”!I also have a dream,but not only a si-mp-le one.
When I was in primary school,my dream was that I would be a doctor when I grew up.I’ll be the first person who produces a new medicine.This kind of medicine can make teachers relax when they are busy correcting their students’ exercises and preparing their lessons.Because one day when I woke up at midnight,I found my father,a senior Chinese teacher,was still busy with his work.I was dee* moved.I wish my father could be healthy and relaxed every minute.
Now I’m a senior Grade Two student,all my classmates and I are working hard,we all know the College Entrance Examination which will come in the year of 2005 is a big problem for us.We must study harder and harder in order to go to a good university,then when we finish our school,we can find a good job in society.My dream is also that.Though now I’m not good at study,I’ll try my best.
I know fantasy is hard to come true,bue dream can.I’ll work hard for my dreams,I’ll never give up.
Dear,
As the saying goes, what wakes you up in the morning is not your alarm clock, but you dream. The future is unknowable, but dream give us the direction some moment maybe the reality is harsh and you are suffering much. If you have a dream, even a very small one, it will light your life in the darkness and keep you hiding from the reality, for dream will give you the energy to fight.
However, sometimes it seems that what is practical and sensible does not connect with your most treasured dreams. I am a freshman, indeed my college life is not as colorful as imagined before, all plans and goals just be hung up. Im very afraid that even if I graduated from college, I still couldnt find a job and then had a better life. Faced with the cruel reality, we college students should really make good use of these facilities and learn as much useful knowledge as possible. Then after graduation, we would find its much easier to get a decent job.
When I am a little girl, my father gave me two cups filled with soil, he asked me to water one cup every day. Two weeks later, tender leaves appeared in the cup that I watered everyday. Father said to me:“The seed represents for your dream, without sweat and effort, it wont come out no means will your dream turn into reality if you never pay for it. ”
From this story I learn that If I intend to full my dreams, must work hard, make efforts, and get prepared, otherwise I will get no possibility to succeed.
——3分钟的英语演讲稿 (菁华3篇)
in the matter of courage we all have our limits. there never was a hero who did not have his bounds. i suppose it may be said of nelson and all the others whose courage has been advertised that there came times in their lives when their bravery knew it had come to its limit.
i have found mine a good many times. sometimes this was expected--often it was unexpected. i know a man who is not afraid to sleep with a rattle-snake, but you could not get him to sleep with a safety-razor.
i never had the courage to talk across a long, narrow room. i should be at the end of the room facing all the audience. if i attempt to talk across a room i find myself turning this way and that, and thus at alternate periods i have part of the audience behind me. you ought never to have any part of the audience behind you; you never can tell what they are going to do.
i'll sit down.
people’ hopes and ideals.
different people have different ideas about success; cause people’s hopes and ideas vary from one another. but i am sure every success is dear to everybody, cause it is not easy to come by, cause in the process of our striving for success, we got both our body and soul tempted, meanwhile we are enlightened by the most valuable qualities of human beings: love, patient, courage and sense of responsibility. these are the best treasures. so now i am very proud that i have this opportunity to stand here speaking to all of you. it is my success, cause i raise up to challenge my hope.
what is success? everyone has his own interpretation as i do. but i am sure
every success leads to an ever-brighter future. so ladies and gentlemen, believe in our hopes, believe in ourselves, we, every one of us, can make a
successful life!
i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed-we hold theses truths to be self-oevident, that all men are created equal. i have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. i have a dream today! when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of god’s children-black men and white men , jews and gentiles, catholics and protestants-will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, “free at least ,free at last . thank god almighty, we are free at last.”
hello! ladies and gentlemen, it is so nice to meet you !i am gladthat you can spend this precious time having this class in thisafternoon.
now please allow me to introduce myself to you .my name is wangjia and imajored in traffic engineering .baoji is my hometown it is verybeautiful. and the people are very friendly.
as we all knowen thingking is easy acting is difficult and to putone's thoughts into actions is the most difficult thing in the world.
so if we want to learn english well ,we must practice reading englisheveryday ,acturally practicing repeatly is the best way to succeed.whenyou speak ,don't care how poorly or how well you speak just care aboutcatching the chance to speak ,enjoy losing face or just forget your facebecause the more you speak the better your english will become,neverafraid ofmaking mistakes because the more mistakes you make the more progress you will make.as a man living in the world ,we must try our best to makeeach day our masterpiece and don't let our parents down ,don't ever letour country down ,most importantly don't let ourself down.
yesterday is a memory tommorrow is a dream so live for todayjust do it right now.i believe if you can dream it you can make it ,ifyou do you will win if you don't you won't.believe in youself trustyouself try your best. don't give up ,never give in, never lose hope ,never say impossible .the success is coming ! thank you !
——英语演讲稿3分钟励志(五)份
Good afternoon everybody! It's my honor to speak here and I am very glad to share my topic with all of you. Today I'd like to talk about “my dream”. I do not just have one dream, in fact, I have three. They are: a healthy life, a happy family and to travel my great country.
I have always admired the long healthy life my grandparents have. They are older than 80 years of age and they are still alive and kicking! How do they do that!? My grandparents plant vegetables and grow rice themselves; even in their old age they still make food for themselves! I guess that is why they can remain healthy. More importantly they remain humble and never ask for too much from life. Perhaps that makes them common, but they live a happy life. My grandmother once told me this:” I do not want to live long, only long enough for some grand children to be running around in my house”. I want to live a long, healthy and happy life just as they have.
Since my graduation from primary school, until now, every time on my birthday I make the same wish. I wish my parents will not fight anymore. I am not complaining that they gave me a bad childhood, they just fight so much! I am unhappy but that does not mean they do not love me. They do! They love me with all their heart. I love my parents also; I want them to live a happy life as well.
I want to travel this great country of ours. I want to see the beauty of our country. I want to see the miracles that made this country great! I want to go from the east to west, from the north all the way down to the south! I have a dream, that one day I can travel and see my country with my family and friends! If that is not possible, seeing my country on my own is good enough also. If I can fulfill all three of my dreams in life, then God can take me away. I would be happy, and l would have lived a full and prosperous life.
Thank you everyone for listening to my dreams.
I thank you!
Perhaps, long process makes us feel tired, but we should have enough patience, after all we have in society the VAT struggled for so long. Think about the past, we tried many kinds of excruciating humiliation, encountered many times cheating heart ached and embarrassment of discrimination, to break the how many times an injustice and despair of difficulties and setbacks, how many liters of hot tears shed, spent much of her door to the state of mind, how much tired out body self... Some in the past cannot be calculated, but in with wan "fear statutes are the most happy" truth, we pay too much too much, thus forging a strong heart.
"People say heaven is good, the fairy music. Behind the success of tears? The fairy people did, uniting the spares no pains. In practise, fruit to fix it was." With the fruits of their labor for, will always be sweet; To fly on his own life, is always bright.
Someday, we will find the ideal of life, to find a truly belong to our own sky. But before that, please shout loudly in the big time: I want to fly higher.
English is a useful language all over the world. Why are we began to learn English when we were little children? Beacause it is very important for us to learn the world, if you cannot speak English you will lose half a chance to success.
I began to learn English when I was 8 years that moment,I do not like English.I connot remember all the words which I have learnt.I think it is very difficult for me to learn it I cannot read English loudly and I never answer the questions in the English classes.
Even if my English is very bad, my teacher stll encourages me to learn English hard and he gives me some ways to learn English. He tells me to read passages loudly and listen to the English tapes everyday order to progress my writing he also asks me to write some articles at times. I like listen to the English songs,he suggests me to sing the English a result of his ways my English becomes well.
Now, I like English very well and I still use the ways he tells me.I know I must learn English even hard.
I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better thannormal; the other half, they are worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. Ittakes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me theperspective to deal with the surprises of the future.
Lets benchmark the parameters: Yes, I will die. Ive dealt with the deathsof both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of thesedeaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, andit belongs at the bottom of the scale.
Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person;having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my sons baseball team,paddling around the creek in the boat while hes swimming with the dogs,discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails,his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile ofLegos.
But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and thegood flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the50-percent theory.
One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone thatneighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal-- the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioner died, thewell went dry, the marriage ended, the job lost, the money gone. I was livinglyrics from a country tune -- music I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royalsteam, bound for their first World Series, buoyed my spirits.
Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeedinggood things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldnt last long. I amowed and savor the halcyon times. They reinvigorate me for the next nastysurprise and offer assurance that I can thrive. The 50 percent theory even helpsme see hope beyond my Royals recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown sothat some year soon we can reap an October harvest.
Oh, yeah, the corn crop? For that one blistering summer, the groundmoisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat witheredthe tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That wintermy crib overflowed with corn -- fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled withkernels from heel to tip -- while my neighbors fields yielded only brown, emptyhusks.
Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation,and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the cropthat flourishes during the drought.
我信奉对半理论。生活时而无比顺畅，时而倒霉透顶，好坏参半。我觉得生活就像来回晃动的钟摆。读懂生活的常态需要时间和阅历，也正是这样才练就了我面对未来荣辱不惊的生活态度。
让我们掂量这些点点滴滴：是的，我注定会死去。我已经经历了双亲的仙逝，一位友人的亡故，一位敬爱的老板的离逝，还有心爱宠物的`死亡。当中一些变故突如其来，直击眼前;有些却长期折磨，痛苦不堪。糟糕的事儿，它们驻留谷底。
当然生活也不乏熠熠光彩：坠入爱河缔结良缘;养育幼子身为人父，训练儿子的棒球队，当他和狗在水中嬉戏时，摇桨划船前瞻后顾，感受他如此强烈的同情心——即使对蜗牛也善待有加，发现他如此活跃的想像力——即使零散的积木也能堆出太空飞船。
但在它们发生期间有一片宽广的草坪，在那儿上演的各种好事坏事像耍杂技一样地翻新。这就是让我信服对半理论的原因。
有一年春天，我在一片容易被淹的低洼地过早地种下了玉米，邻居们都为此嘲笑我。一番心血付之东流让我懊恼不已。接着我生命中最难熬的酷暑来临了——热浪袭人，酿至旱灾。空调失灵，水井枯竭，婚姻破裂，惨遭失业，积蓄挥空。我正经历某个乡村调频描绘的情节，我讨厌这种音乐。只有一支人气攀升的堪萨斯皇家棒球队的小组因他们的第一次出征世界大赛团结起来使我精神振奋。
回想那个可怕的夏天，我不久就明白了所有的好事坏事不过是正负抵消。不顺心的境遇不会延宕过久。太*时光是我应得的，我要尽情享受。它们给我新的活力以应对突如其来的险境，并确保我再度辉煌。对半理论甚至帮我在我喜爱的皇家棒球队最*的低潮中看到希望——这是一块艰难行进的新手们耕耘的土地，播种了，假以时日我们就可以收获十月的金秋。
哦，对了，玉米收成?就那年炎热的夏天，庄稼地的湿度恰到好处，过早的种植使授粉避开酷热在顶梢干枯前完成，雨水稀少使地里长着的玉米免遭水灾。那年冬天，我的粮仓里堆满了玉米——饱满结实的玉米每株秆上结三个，每个玉米从底到顶端长满了玉米粒——而我的邻居们地里长出来的只是暗沉干瘪的壳。
尽管过去播种的收获没有达到50%的期望，而且将来也可能是这样，我仍然要为经历旱季依然丰收的玉米而坚守阵地。
A university professor started off his class by picking out of his back pocket a 20-pound note. And in this lecture hall of about 200 people he asked, “How many of you would like this note?”
Naturally, all 200 hands went up. He said, “Interesting.” He then said, “Before i let you have it, let me ask you this question.” He took the note and folded it in half twice, and then he said, “How many of you want this note?” Still 200 hands went up. Now he said, “Let me try something else.” He took the note and he crumpled it.And he said, “How many of you want this note now?” Still 200 hands went up. Finally he chucked the note on the floor. He screwed it with his shoe and crumpled it even more, picked it back up, now with dirt, and said, “How many of you want this note?”
All 200 hands were still up. He said, “Today, you’ve leraned an important lesson. No matter how much i crumpled that note, how much i scrunched it up, how many times it was trodden on, you still wanted it, because it was still worth 20-pounds.”
——TED5分钟英语演讲稿（精选5篇）
People returning to work after a career break: I call them relaunchers. These are people who have taken career breaks for elder care, for childcare reasons, pursuing a personal interest or a personal health issue. Closely related are career transitioners of all kinds: veterans, military spouses, retirees coming out of retirement or repatriating expats. Returning to work after a career break is hard because of a disconnect between the employers and the relaunchers. Employers can view hiring people with a gap on their resume as a high-risk proposition, and individuals on career break can have doubts about their abilities to relaunch their careers, especially if they've been out for a long time. This disconnect is a problem that I'm trying to help solve.
有些人经过离职长假之后 重新投入到工作中来， 我称他们为“再从业者”。 这些人选择休离职长假， 有些是要照顾老人， 有些是要照顾孩子， 也有些是追求个人爱好， 或是健康因素。 各行各业转业的人 都与之紧密相关： 退伍军人、军嫂， 退休返聘的人， 或遣返回国者。 离职长假后重返工作 是非常困难的， 因为雇主和再从业者之间 有了隔阂。 雇主们认为，雇佣这些 简历上工作时间不连贯的人 是风险极高的决策， 而正在离职长假中的人 可能对自己再从业的能力产生疑虑， 特别是那些离职时间较长者。 两者间的缺乏联系 是我在尝试解决的问题。
Now, successful relaunchers are everywhere and in every field. This is Sami Kafala. He's a nuclear physicist in the UK who took a five-year career break to be home with his five children. The Singapore press recently wrote about nurses returning to work after long career breaks. And speaking of long career breaks, this is Mimi Kahn. She's a social worker in Orange County, California, who returned to work in a social services organization after a 25-year career break. That's the longest career break that I'm aware of. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took a five-year career break early in her career.
如今，我们在各行各业 都能见到成功的再从业者。 这位是萨米·科法拉， 他是英国的一位核物理学家， 因为要在家照顾五个孩子 而度过了五年的离职长假。 新加坡的媒体最*发表了文章， 内容是有关离职长假后再从业的护士。 提到长时间的离职假期， 这位是米米·卡恩, 她是加州奥兰治县的一位社工， 她在度过20xx年的离职长假后 回到了一个社会服务组织工作。 这是据我所知最长的离职假期。 最高法院法官桑德拉·戴·奥康纳， 在其职业生涯早期 度过了五年离职长假。
And this is Tracy Shapiro, who took a 13-year career break. Tracy answered a call for essays by the Today Show from people who were trying to return to work but having a difficult time of it. Tracy wrote in that she was a mom of five who loved her time at home, but she had gone through a divorce and needed to return to work, plus she really wanted to bring work back into her life because she loved working. Tracy was doing what so many of us do when we feel like we've put in a good day in the job search. She was looking for a finance or accounting role, and she had just spent the last nine months very diligently researching companies online and ap***ing for jobs with no results.
这位是特蕾西·莎碧罗， 她度过了20xx年的离职长假。 特蕾西答复了从“今日秀”节目观众中 征集到的问题， 他们想要重返工作， 却发现很难做到。 特蕾西写道：自己是五个孩子的母亲， 也很享受居家的时间， 但是她历经了一次离婚， 并且急需回到工作状态， 另外，她很想把工作 带回她的生活中， 因为她也很享受工作。 特蕾西也曾做过 我们很多人所做的事， 每天不停的搜寻合适的工作。 她找过财经、会计领域的职位， 她在那之前花掉了九个月时间， 很努力地调查网上的公司， 然后投放简历，却一无所获。
I met Tracy in June of 20xx, when the Today Show asked me if I could work with her to see if I could help her turn things around. The first thing I told Tracy was she had to get out of the house. I told her she had to go public with her job search and tell everyone she knew about her interest in returning to work. I also told her, "You are going to have a lot of conversations that don't go anywhere. Expect that, and don't be discouraged by it. There will be a handful that ultimately lead to a job opportunity."
我在20xx年六月见到了特蕾西， 那时“今日秀”节目 问我可否与她合作， 看我能不能帮她走出困境。 我告诉特蕾西的第一件事， 就是她必须走出家门。 我告诉她，她必须 公开自己求职的想法， 然后告诉她认识的所有人， 自己再从业的强烈意愿。 我还告诉她， “有很多你参与的对话 是对你完全没有帮助的。 你要做好心理准备， 别因为那些而灰心丧气。 找到工作机会之前， 确实要经历很多琐事。”
I'll tell you what happened with Tracy in a little bit, but I want to share with you a discovery that I made when I was returning to work after my own career break of 11 years out of the full-time workforce. And that is, that people's view of you is frozen in time. What I mean by this is, when you start to get in touch with people and you get back in touch with those people from the past, the people with whom you worked or went to school, they are going to remember you as you were before your career break. And that's even if your sense of self has diminished over time, as happens with so many of us the farther removed we are from our professional identities. So for example, you might think of yourself as someone who looks like this. This is me, crazy after a day of driving around in my minivan. Or here I am in the kitchen. But those people from the past, they don't know about any of this. They only remember you as you were, and it's a great confidence boost to be back in touch with these people and hear their enthusiasm about your interest in returning to work.
我稍后再告诉你们 特蕾西是如何处理的， 我想先跟大家分享 我的一个发现， 那时我刚刚回到工作中， 结束了自己离开全职工作大军 20xx年的长假。 这个发现就是， 人们对你的印象凝固在过去。 我的意思是， 当你再次开始与人打交道， 与曾经合作过的人重新接触， 例如跟你一起上学、工作过的人， 他们对你的印象是 离职长假之前的你。 我们的自我意识 随着时间推移逐渐淡化， 我们很多人都会这样， 我们距离我们的职业身份 也就越来越远。 举个例子， 你可能把你自己看成这样。 这就是我，开了一天小面包车， 整个人感觉很疯狂。 这是我在厨房里的样子。 但是从前的那些人， 他们对这些一无所知。 他们只记得你曾经的样子， 当你重新与这些人沟通时， 真是大大的增强了自信心， 而且他们对你有再从业的兴趣 感到非常的开心。
There's one more thing I remember vividly from my own career break. And that was that I hardly kept up with the business news. My background is in finance, and I hardly kept up with any news when I was home caring for my four young children. So I was afraid I'd go into an interview and start talking about a company that didn't exist anymore. So I had to resubscribe to the Wall Street Journal and read it for a good six months cover to cover before I felt like I had a handle on what was going on in the business world again.
我还清晰地记得发生在 我离职长假中的一件事。 那时我几乎完全不关注经济新闻。 我曾是财经行业出身， 然而我在家照顾四个孩子时， 我几乎不关注任何的新闻。 所以我很害怕， 自己去参加面试的时候， 会讲到一个不复存在的公司。 所以我重新订阅了华尔街日报， 然后连续看了六个月， 之后我才觉得自己对经济 又有了点解了。
I believe relaunchers are a gem of the workforce, and here's why. Think about our life stage: for those of us who took career breaks for childcare reasons, we have fewer or no maternity leaves. We did that already. We have fewer spousal or partner job relocations. We're in a more settled time of life. We have great work experience. We have a more mature perspective. We're not trying to find ourselves at an employer's expense. Plus we have an energy, an enthusiasm about returning to work precisely because we've been away from it for a while.
我相信再从业者是 劳动大军中的精英， 原因如下。 想想我们人生的阶段： 对于那些因为要照顾孩子 而休离职假期的人， 大都没有产假，或是产假很短。 我们早就做过这些了。 我们离婚率较低， 也很少因伴侣而调整工作。 我们的生活更稳定。 我们有很棒的工作经历， 更成熟的眼光， 我们不会成为雇主的牺牲品。 此外，我们有一种能量 - 重返岗位的热情， 正是因为我们离职一段时间了。 另外，我也跟雇主讨论，
On the flip side, I speak with employers, and here are two concerns that employers have about hiring relaunchers.
以下是雇主们 关于雇佣再从业者的两个担忧。
The first one is, employers are worried that relaunchers are technologically obsolete. Now, I can tell you, having been technologically obsolete myself at one point, that it's a temporary condition. I had done my financial ***ysis so long ago that I used Lotus 1-2-3. I don't know if anyone can even remember back that far, but I had to relearn it on Excel. It actually wasn't that hard. A lot of the commands are the same. I found PowerPoint much more challenging, but now I use PowerPoint all the time. I tell relaunchers that employers expect them to come to the table with a working knowledge of basic office management software. And if they're not up to speed, then it's their responsibility to get there. And they do.
其一，雇主担心这些再从业者 技术方面比较落后。 我可以告诉各位， 虽然有段时间我自己技术确实落后， 但那只是暂时的。 很早以前我用“莲花123”软件 来做财经分析， 我不知道有没有人还记得 那么早以前的事了， 这些技能我得在 Excel上重新拾起。 其实这并并非难事， 很多的操作指令是一样的。 我发现PowerPoint更具挑战性， 但现在我对PowerPoint驾轻就熟。 我告诉再从业者们， 雇主希望找工作的人 对基本的办公管理软件 有实践经验。 如果他们操作速度不够快， 那他们就必须变得更高效。 而他们确实做得到。
The second area of concern that employers have about relaunchers is they're worried that relaunchers don't know what they want to do. I tell relaunchers that they need to do the hard work to figure out whether their interests and skills have changed or have not changed while they have been on career break. That's not the employer's job. It's the relauncher's responsibility to demonstrate to the employer where they can add the most value.
雇主对再从业者的第二种忧虑， 就是他们担心再从业者 不清楚他们想要做什么。 我告诉再从业者， 他们必须仔细研究， 了解自己的爱好或者技能 在离职长假的过程中 是否发生了变化。 这不是雇主的职责。 这个是再从业者的责任， 把自己展现给雇主， 来充分展示自己可创造的价值。
Back in 20xx I started noticing something. I had been tracking return to work programs since 20xx, and in 20xx, I started noticing the use of a short-term paid work opportunity, whether it was called an internship or not, but an internship-like experience, as a way for professionals to return to work. I saw Goldman Sachs and Sara Lee start corporate reentry internship programs. I saw a returning engineer, a nontraditional reentry candidate, ap*** for an entry-level internship program in the military, and then get a permanent job afterward. I saw two universities integrate internships into mid-career executive education programs.
20xx年，我开始注意到一件事。 我从20xx年开始追踪 人们重返岗位的情况， 然而在20xx年，我开始注意到， 一种短期、带薪的工作机会开始出现， 不论它是不是名叫“实*”， 但总之是一个很像实*的经历， 这为重回岗位的专业人士 开辟了一条道路。 我看到高盛和莎莉集团 都开始了此类 二次从业的实*项目。 我看到一个再从业的工程师， 算是不太传统的再从业人士， 申请了一个 军方的初级实*项目， 后来他获得了一个永久的工作。 我看到两所大学 将实*项目整合到 职业中期管理学教育项目中。
So I wrote a report about what I was seeing, and it became this article for Harvard Business Review called "The 40-Year-Old Intern." I have to thank the editors there for that title, and also for this artwork where you can see the 40-year-old intern in the midst of all the college interns. And then, courtesy of Fox Business News, they called the concept "The 50-Year-Old Intern."
于是，就我所观察到的现象， 我写了一篇报告， 后来它发表在了 《哈佛商业评论》中， 名字叫《40岁的实*生》。 我必须得感谢编者拟的标题， 还有这个很棒的配图， 你们可以看到那个40岁的实*生 出现在一群大学实*生中。 后来，还得感谢福克斯商业新闻， 他们把这个概念称为 “50岁的实*生”。
So five of the biggest financial services companies have reentry internship programs for returning finance professionals. And at this point, hundreds of people have participated. These internships are paid, and the people who move on to permanent roles are commanding competitive salaries. And now, seven of the biggest engineering companies are piloting reentry internship programs for returning engineers as part of an initiative with the Society of Women Engineers. Now, why are companies embracing the reentry internship? Because the internship allows the employer to base their hiring decision on an actual work sample instead of a series of interviews, and the employer does not have to make that permanent hiring decision until the internship period is over. This testing out period removes the perceived risk that some managers attach to hiring relaunchers, and they are attracting excellent candidates who are turning into great hires.
五家最大的金融服务公司 都设立了再从业实*项目， 专为重回岗位的金融精英。 截至目前，数百人参与了这些项目。 这些实*项目是带薪的， 而且那些晋升到永久岗位的人， 都有极具竞争力的薪资。 现在，七家最大的工程公司， 也在推行再从业实*项目， 来帮助重返岗位的工程师， 这也是女性工程师协会 新方案的一部分。 那么，为什么这些企业 大力支持再从业实*呢? 因为这种实*可以让雇主 基于参与者实际工作成效 来做出雇佣决策， 而非一系列的面试， 而且雇主不必在实*结束之前 就做出永久雇佣的决定。 这段试验期消除了一定的风险， 这关乎某些经理人 对雇佣再从业者的担忧， 同时，这也吸引了大量再从业人士， 他们成为了出色的雇佣对象。
Think about how far we have come. Before this, most employers were not interested in engaging with relaunchers at all. But now, not only are programs being developed specifically with relaunchers in mind, but you can't even ap*** for these programs unless you have a gap on your resume.
各位,想一想我们取得的进步， 在此之前，大多数雇主 根本没兴趣与再从业者打交道。 然而现在，有许多项目在开展实施， 特别是针对再从业者的项目， 如果简历上没有一段空档期， 你根本不能申请这些项目。
This is the mark of real change, of true institutional shift, because if we can solve this problem for relaunchers, we can solve it for other career transitioners too. In fact, an employer just told me that their veterans return to work program is based on their reentry internship program. And there's no reason why there can't be a retiree internship program. Different pool, same concept.
这标志着一种实质变化， 一种真正的制度变革， 因为如果我们可以 为再从业者解决这个问题， 我们亦可为其他的职业转型者 解决同样的问题。 事实上，一位雇主刚刚告诉我， 他们的“退伍军人再从业项目”， 就是基于他们的再从业实*项目。 我们也没有理由不去设立 一个“退休人士实*项目”。 不同的对象，相同的概念。
So let me tell you what happened with Tracy Shapiro. Remember that she had to tell everyone she knew about her interest in returning to work. Well, one critical conversation with another parent in her community led to a job offer for Tracy, and it was an accounting job in a finance department. But it was a temp job. The company told her there was a possibility it could turn into something more, but no guarantees. This was in the fall of 20xx. Tracy loved this company, and she loved the people and the office was less than 10 minutes from her house. So even though she had a second job offer at another company for a permanent full-time role, she decided to take her chances with this internship and hope for the best. Well, she ended up blowing away all of their expectations, and the company not only made her a permanent offer at the beginning of 20xx, but they made it even more interesting and challenging, because they knew what Tracy could handle.
让我告诉你们特蕾西·莎碧罗 最后发生了什么。 各位回想一下， 她必须告诉她认识的每一个人， 自己对重返工作岗位很有兴趣。 结果，她与自己社区里的长辈 进行了一次关键的谈话， 这让她找到了一份工作邀请。 那是一个金融部门的会计工作。 但那是临时的。 公司告诉她， 有可能有岗位晋升的机会， 但是不能保证。 那是20xx年的秋天。 特蕾西很爱那个公司， 而且她喜欢那里的员工， 从办公室去她家只需10分钟。 所以即使她后来得到了 第二份工作邀请， 来自另一家公司， 而且有永久、全职的保证， 她决定在这份实*项目中冒冒险， 尽人事，听天命。 最后，她的业绩 远远超出了所有人的期望值， 公司不但提供了她永久岗位， 那是在20xx年初， 而且他们还让她的工作 更加有趣、有挑战性， 因为他们知道特蕾西可以办得到。
Fast forward to 20xx, Tracy's been promoted. They've paid for her to get her MBA at night. She's even hired another relauncher to work for her. Tracy's temp job was a tryout, just like an internship, and it ended up being a win for both Tracy and her employer.
时间快进到20xx年， 特蕾西获得了晋升。 公司为她的夜校工商管理课程买单。 她甚至雇佣了 另一位再从业者为她工作。 特蕾西的临时工作像是一个试验， 就像实*项目， 而最终，特蕾西和她的雇主 达到了双赢局面。
Now, my goal is to bring the reentry internship concept to more and more employers. But in the meantime, if you are returning to work after a career break, don't hesitate to suggest an internship or an internship-like arrangement to an employer that does not have a formal reentry internship program. Be their first success story, and you can be the example for more relaunchers to come.
我的目标是将这种 再从业实*的概念 推荐给越来越多的雇主。 但是与此同时， 如果你在离职长假后重返岗位， 别犹豫向雇主提议设立实*项目， 或者类似实*项目的想法， 特别是那些没有 正式的再从业实*项目的公司。 争当他们的第一个成功故事， 而你们都可以成为 未来更多再从业者的楷模。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
do you think it's possible to control someone's attention? even more than that, what about predicting human behavior? i think those are interesting ideas, if you could. i mean, for me, that would be the perfect superpower, actually kind of an evil way of approaching it. but for myself, in the past, i've spent the last 20 years studying human behavior from a rather unorthodox way: picking pockets. when we think of misdirection, we think of something as looking off to the side, when actually it's often the things that are right in front of us that are the hardest things to see, the things that you look at every day that you're blinded to.
for example, how many of you still have your cell phones on you right now? great. double-check. make sure you still have them on you. i was doing some shopping beforehand. now you've looked at them probably a few times today, but i'm going to ask you a question about them. without looking at your cell phone directly yet, can you remember the icon in the bottom right corner? bring them out, check, and see how accurate you were. how'd you do? show of hands. did we get it?
now that you're done looking at those, close them down, because every phone has something in common. no matter how you organize the icons, you still have a clock on the front. so, without looking at your phone, what time was it? you just looked at your clock, right? it's an interesting idea. now, i'll ask you to take that a step further with a game of trust. close your eyes. i realize i'm asking you to do that while you just heard there's a pickpocket in the room, but close your eyes.
now, you've been watching me for about 30 seconds. with your eyes closed, what am i wearing? make your best guess. what color is my shirt? what color is my tie? now open your eyes. by a show of hands, were you right?
it's interesting, isn't it? some of us are a little bit more perceptive than others. it seems that way. but i have a different theory about that, that model of attention. they have fancy models of attention, posner's trinity model of attention. for me, i like to think of it very simple, like a surveillance system. it's kind of like you have all these fancy sensors, and inside your brain is a little security guard. for me, i like to call him frank. so frank is sitting at a desk. he's got all sorts of cool information in front of him, high-tech equipment, he's got cameras, he's got a little phone that he can pick up, listen to the ears, all these senses, all these perceptions. but attention is what steers your perceptions, is what controls your reality. it's the gateway to the mind. if you don't attend to something, you can't be aware of it. but ironically, you can attend to something without being aware of it. that's why there's the cocktail effect: when you're in a party, you're having conversations with someone, and yet you can recognize your name and you didn't even realize you were listening to that.
now, for my job, i have to play with techniques to exploit this, to play with your attention as a limited resource. so if i could control how you spend your attention, if i could maybe steal your attention through a distraction. now, instead of doing it like misdirection and throwing it off to the side, instead, what i choose to focus on is frank, to be able to play with the frank inside your head, your little security guard, and get you, instead of focusing on your external senses, just to go internal for a second. so if i ask you to access a memory, like, what is that? what just happened? do you have a wallet? do you have an american express in your wallet? and when i do that, your frank turns around. he accesses the file. he has to rewind the tape. and what's interesting is, he can't rewind the tape at the same time that he's trying to process new data.
now, i mean, this sounds like a good theory, but i could talk for a long time and tell you lots of things, and they may be true, a portion of them, but i think it's better if i tried to show that to you here live. so if i come down, i'm going to do a little bit of shopping. just hold still where you are.
hello, how are you? it's lovely to see you. you did a wonderful job onstage. you have a lovely watch that doesn't come off very well. do you have your ring as well? good. just taking inventory. you're like a buffet. it's hard to tell where to start, there's so many great things.
hi, how are you? good to see you.
hi, sir, could you stand up for me, please? just right where you are. oh, you're married. you follow directions well. that's nice to meet you, sir. you don't have a whole lot inside your pockets. anything down by the pocket over here? hopefully so. have a seat. there you go. you're doing well.
hi, sir, how are you? good to see you, sir. you have a ring, a watch. do you have a wallet on you? joe: i don't. apollo robbins: well, we'll find one for you. come on up this way, joe. give joe a round of applause. come on up joe. let's play a game.
(applause)
pardon me.
i don't think i need this clicker anymore. you can have that. thank you very much. i appreciate that.
come on up to the stage, joe. let's play a little game now. do you have anything in your front pockets? joe: money. ar: money. all right, let's try that. can you stand right over this way for me? turn around and, let's see, if i give you something that belongs to me, this is just something i have, a poker chip. hold out your hand for me. watch it kind of closely. now this is a task for you to focus on. now you have your money in your front pocket here? joe: yup. ar: good. i'm not going to actually put my hand in your pocket. i'm not ready for that kind of commitment. one time a guy had a hole in his pocket, and that was rather traumatizing for me. i was looking for his wallet and he gave me his phone number. it was a big miscommunication.
so let's do this sim***. squeeze your hand. squeeze it tight. do you feel the poker chip in your hand? joe: i do. ar: would you be surprised if i could take it out of your hand? say yes. joe: very. ar: good. open your hand. thank you very much. i'll cheat if you give me a chance. make it harder for me. just use your hand. grab my wrist, but squeeze, squeeze firm. did you see it go? joe: no. ar: no, it's not here. open your hand. see, while we're focused on the hand, it's sitting on your shoulder right now. go ahead and take it off. now, let's try that again. hold your hand out flat. open it up all the way. put your hand up a little bit higher, but watch it close there, joe. see, if i did it slowly, it'd be back on your shoulder. (laughter) joe, we're going to keep doing this till you catch it. you're going to get it eventually. i have faith in you. squeeze firm. you're human, you're not slow. it's back on your shoulder. you were focused on your hand. that's why you were distracted. while you were watching this, i couldn't quite get your watch off. it was difficult. yet you had something inside your front pocket. do you remember what it was? joe: money. ar: check your pocket. see if it's still there. is it still there? (laughter) oh, that's where it was. go ahead and put it away. we're just shopping. this trick's more about the timing, really. i'm going to try to push it inside your hand. put your other hand on top for me, would you? it's amazingly obvious now, isn't it? it looks a lot like the watch i was wearing, doesn't it?
(laughter) (applause)
joe: that's pretty good. that's pretty good. ar: oh, thanks. but it's only a start. let's try it again, a little bit differently. hold your hands together. put your other hand on top. now if you're watching this little token, this obviously has become a little target. it's like a red herring. if we watch this kind of close, it looks like it goes away. it's not back on your shoulder. it falls out of the air, lands right back in the hand. did you see it go? yeah, it's funny. we've got a little guy. he's union. he works up there all day. if i did it slowly, if it goes straightaway, it lands down by your pocket. i believe is it in this pocket, sir? no, don't reach in your pocket. that's a different show. so -- (squeaking noise) -- that's rather strange. they have shots for that. can i show them what that is? that's rather bizarre. is this yours, sir? i have no idea how that works. we'll just send that over there.
that's great. i need help with this one. step over this way for me. now don't run away. you had something down by your pants pocket. i was checking mine. i couldn't find everything, but i noticed you had something here. can i feel the outside of your pocket for a moment? down here i noticed this. is this something of yours, sir? is this? i have no idea. that's a shrimp.
joe: yeah. i'm saving it for later.
ar: you've entertained all of these people in a wonderful way, better than you know. so we'd love to give you this lovely watch as a gift. (laughter) hopefully it matches his taste. but also, we have a couple of other things, a little bit of cash, and then we have a few other things. these all belong to you, along with a big round of applause from all your friends. (applause)
oe, thank you very much.
(applause)
so, same question i asked you before, but this time you don't have to close your eyes. what am i wearing?
(laughter)
(applause)
attention is a powerful thing. like i said, it shapes your reality. so, i guess i'd like to pose that question to you. if you could control somebody's attention, what would you do with it?
thank you.
What I'd like to do today is talk about one of my favorite subjects, and that is the neuroscience of sleep.
Now, there is a sound -- (Alarm clock) -- aah, it worked -- a sound that is desperately, desperately familiar to most of us, and of course it's the sound of the alarm clock. And what that truly ghastly, awful sound does is stop the single most important behavioral experience that we have, and that's sleep. If you're an average sort of person, 36 percent of your life will be spent asleep, which means that if you live to 90, then 32 years will have been spent entirely asleep.
Now what that 32 years is telling us is that sleep at some level is important. And yet, for most of us, we don't give sleep a second thought. We throw it away. We really just don't think about sleep. And so what I'd like to do today is change your views, change your ideas and your thoughts about sleep. And the journey that I want to take you on, we need to start by going back in time.
"Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber." Any ideas who said that? Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Yes, let me give you a few more quotes. "O sleep, O gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?" Shakespeare again, from -- I won't say it -- the Scottish play. [Correction: Henry IV, Part 2] (Laughter) From the same time: "Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together." Extremely prophetic, by Thomas Dekker, another Elizabethan dramatist.
But if we jump forward 400 years, the tone about sleep changes somewhat. This is from Thomas Edison, from the beginning of the 20th century. "Sleep is a criminal waste of time and a heritage from our cave days." Bang. (Laughter) And if we also jump into the 1980s, some of you may remember that Margaret Thatcher was reported to have said, "Sleep is for wimps." And of course the infamous -- what was his name? -- the infamous Gordon Gekko from "Wall Street" said, "Money never sleeps."
What do we do in the 20th century about sleep? Well, of course, we use Thomas Edison's light bulb to invade the night, and we occupied the dark, and in the process of this occupation, we've treated sleep as an illness, almost. We've treated it as an enemy. At most now, I suppose, we tolerate the need for sleep, and at worst perhaps many of us think of sleep as an illness that needs some sort of a cure. And our ignorance about sleep is really quite profound.
Why is it? Why do we abandon sleep in our thoughts? Well, it's because you don't do anything much while you're asleep, it seems. You don't eat. You don't drink. And you don't have sex. Well, most of us anyway. And so therefore it's -- Sorry. It's a complete waste of time, right? Wrong. Actually, sleep is an incredibly important part of our biology, and neuroscientists are beginning to explain why it's so very important. So let's move to the brain.
Now, here we have a brain. This is donated by a social scientist, and they said they didn't know what it was, or indeed how to use it, so -- (Laughter) Sorry. So I borrowed it. I don't think they noticed. Okay. (Laughter)
The point I'm trying to make is that when you're asleep, this thing doesn't shut down. In fact, some areas of the brain are actually more active during the sleep state than during the wake state. The other thing that's really important about sleep is that it doesn't arise from a single structure within the brain, but is to some extent a network property, and if we flip the brain on its back -- I love this little bit of spinal cord here -- this bit here is the hypothalamus, and right under there is a whole raft of interesting structures, not least the biological clock. The biological clock tells us when it's good to be up, when it's good to be asleep, and what that structure does is interact with a whole raft of other areas within the hypothalamus, the lateral hypothalamus, the ventrolateral preoptic nuclei. All of those combine, and they send projections down to the brain stem here. The brain stem then projects forward and bathes the cortex, this wonderfully wrinkly bit over here, with neurotransmitters that keep us awake and essentially provide us with our consciousness. So sleep arises from a whole raft of different interactions within the brain, and essentially, sleep is turned on and off as a result of a range of
Okay. So where have we got to? We've said that sleep is complicated and it takes 32 years of our life. But what I haven't explained is what sleep is about. So why do we sleep? And it won't surprise any of you that, of course, the scientists, we don't have a consensus. There are dozens of different ideas about why we sleep, and I'm going to outline three of those.
The first is sort of the restoration idea, and it's somewhat intuitive. Essentially, all the stuff we've burned up during the day, we restore, we replace, we rebuild during the night. And indeed, as an explanation, it goes back to Aristotle, so that's, what, 2,300 years ago. It's gone in and out of fashion. It's fashionable at the moment because what's been shown is that within the brain, a whole raft of genes have been shown to be turned on only during sleep, and those genes are associated with restoration and metabolic pathways. So there's good evidence for the whole restoration hypothesis.
What about energy conservation? Again, perhaps intuitive. You essentially sleep to save calories. Now, when you do the sums, though, it doesn't really pan out. If you compare an individual who has slept at night, or stayed awake and hasn't moved very much, the energy saving of sleeping is about 110 calories a night. Now, that's the equivalent of a hot dog bun. Now, I would say that a hot dog bun is kind of a meager return for such a complicated and demanding behavior as sleep. So I'm less convinced by the energy conservation idea.
But the third idea I'm quite attracted to, which is brain processing and memory consolidation. What we know is that, if after you've tried to learn a task, and you sleep-deprive individuals, the ability to learn that task is smashed. It's really hugely attenuated. So sleep and memory consolidation is also very important. However, it's not just the laying down of memory and recalling it. What's turned out to be really exciting is that our ability to come up with novel solutions to complex problems is hugely enhanced by a night of sleep. In fact, it's been estimated to give us a threefold advantage. Sleeping at night enhances our creativity. And what seems to be going on is that, in the brain, those neural connections that are important, those synaptic connections that are important, are linked and strengthened, while those that are less important tend to fade away and be less important.
Okay. So we've had three explanations for why we might sleep, and I think the important thing to realize is that the details will vary, and it's probable we sleep for multiple different reasons. But sleep is not an indulgence. It's not some sort of thing that we can take on board rather casually. I think that sleep was once likened to an upgrade from economy to business class, you know, the equiavlent of. It's not even an upgrade from economy to first class. The critical thing to realize is that if you don't sleep, you don't fly. Essentially, you never get there, and what's extraordinary about much of our society these days is that we are desperately sleep-deprived.
So let's now look at sleep deprivation. Huge sectors of society are sleep-deprived, and let's look at our sleep-o-meter. So in the 1950s, good data suggests that most of us were getting around about eight hours of sleep a night. Nowadays, we sleep one and a half to two hours less every night, so we're in the six-and-a-half-hours-every-night league. For teenagers, it's worse, much worse. They need nine hours for full brain performance, and many of them, on a school night, are only getting five hours of sleep. It's sim*** not enough. If we think about other sectors of society, the aged, if you are aged, then your ability to sleep in a single block is somewhat disrupted, and many sleep, again, less than five hours a night. Shift work. Shift work is extraordinary, perhaps 20 percent of the working population, and the body clock does not shift to the demands of working at night. It's locked onto the same light-dark cycle as the rest of us. So when the poor old shift worker is going home to try and sleep during the day, desperately tired, the body clock is saying, "Wake up. This is the time to be awake." So the quality of sleep that you get as a night shift worker is usually very poor, again in that sort of five-hour region. And then, of course, tens of millions of people suffer from jet lag. So who here has jet lag? Well, my goodness gracious. Well, thank you very much indeed for not falling asleep, because that's what your brain is craving.
One of the things that the brain does is indulge in micro-sleeps, this involuntary falling asleep, and you have essentially no control over it. Now, micro-sleeps can be sort of somewhat embarrassing, but they can also be deadly. It's been estimated that 31 percent of drivers will fall asleep at the wheel at least once in their life, and in the U.S., the statistics are pretty good: 100,000 accidents on the freeway have been associated with tiredness, loss of vigilance, and falling asleep. A hundred thousand a year. It's extraordinary. At another level of terror, we dip into the tragic accidents at Chernobyl and indeed the space shuttle Challenger, which was so tragically lost. And in the investigations that followed those disasters, poor judgment as a result of extended shift work and loss of vigilance and tiredness was attributed to a big chunk of those disasters.
So when you're tired, and you lack sleep, you have poor memory, you have poor creativity, you have increased impulsiveness, and you have overall poor judgment. But my friends, it's so much worse than that.
(Laughter)
If you are a tired brain, the brain is craving things to wake it up. So drugs, stimulants. Caffeine represents the stimulant of choice across much of the Western world. Much of the day is fueled by caffeine, and if you're a really naughty tired brain, nicotine. And of course, you're fueling the waking state with these stimulants, and then of course it gets to 11 o'clock at night, and the brain says to itself, "Ah, well actually, I need to be asleep fairly shortly. What do we do about that when I'm feeling completely wired?" Well, of course, you then resort to alcohol. Now alcohol, short-term, you know, once or twice, to use to mildly sedate you, can be very useful. It can actually ease the sleep transition. But what you must be so aware of is that alcohol doesn't provide sleep, a biological mimic for sleep. It sedates you. So it actually harms some of the neural proccessing that's going on during memory consolidation and memory recall. So it's a short-term acute measure, but for goodness sake, don't become addicted to alcohol as a way of getting to sleep every night.
Another connection between loss of sleep is weight gain. If you sleep around about five hours or less every night, then you have a 50 percent likelihood of being obese. What's the connection here? Well, sleep loss seems to give rise to the release of the hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Ghrelin is released. It gets to the brain. The brain says, "I need carbohydrates," and what it does is seek out carbohydrates and particularly sugars. So there's a link between tiredness and the metabolic predisposition for weight gain.
Stress. Tired people are massively stressed. And one of the things of stress, of course, is loss of memory, which is what I sort of just then had a little lapse of. But stress is so much more. So if you're acutely stressed, not a great problem, but it's sustained stress associated with sleep loss that's the problem. So sustained stress leads to suppressed immunity, and so tired people tend to have higher rates of overall infection, and there's some very good studies showing that shift workers, for example, have higher rates of cancer. Increased levels of stress throw glucose into the circulation. Glucose becomes a dominant part of the vasculature and essentially you become glucose intolerant. Therefore, diabetes 2. Stress increases cardiovascular disease as a result of raising blood pressure. So there's a whole raft of things associated with sleep loss that are more than just a mildly impaired brain, which is where I think most people think that sleep loss resides.
So at this point in the talk, this is a nice time to think, well, do you think on the whole I'm getting enough sleep? So a quick show of hands. Who feels that they're getting enough sleep here? Oh. Well, that's pretty impressive. Good. We'll talk more about that later, about what are your tips.
So most of us, of course, ask the question, "Well, how do I know whether I'm getting enough sleep?" Well, it's not rocket science. If you need an alarm clock to get you out of bed in the morning, if you are taking a long time to get up, if you need lots of stimulants, if you're grumpy, if you're irritable, if you're told by your work colleagues that you're looking tired and irritable, chances are you are sleep-deprived. Listen to them. Listen to yourself.
What do you do? Well -- and this is slightly offensive -- sleep for dummies: Make your bedroom a haven for sleep. The first critical thing is make it as dark as you possibly can, and also make it slightly cool. Very important. Actually, reduce your amount of light exposure at least half an hour before you go to bed. Light increases levels of alertness and will delay sleep. What's the last thing that most of us do before we go to bed? We stand in a massively lit bathroom looking into the mirror cleaning our teeth. It's the worst thing we can possibly do before we went to sleep. Turn off those mobile phones. Turn off those computers. Turn off all of those things that are also going to excite the brain. Try not to drink caffeine too late in the day, ideally not after lunch. Now, we've set about reducing light exposure before you go to bed, but light exposure in the morning is very good at setting the biological clock to the light-dark cycle. So seek out morning light. Basically, listen to yourself. Wind down. Do those sorts of things that you know are going to ease you off into the honey-heavy dew of slumber.
Okay. That's some facts. What about some myths?
Teenagers are lazy. No. Poor things. They have a biological predisposition to go to bed late and get up late, so give them a break.
We need eight hours of sleep a night. That's an average. Some people need more. Some people need less. And what you need to do is listen to your body. Do you need that much or do you need more? Simple as that.
Old people need less sleep. Not true. The sleep demands of the aged do not go down. Essentially, sleep fragments and becomes less robust, but sleep requirements do not go down.
And the fourth myth is, early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Well that's wrong at so many different levels. (Laughter) There is no, no evidence that getting up early and going to bed early gives you more wealth at all. There's no difference in socioeconomic status. In my experience, the only difference between morning people and evening people is that those people that get up in the morning early are just horribly smug.
(Laughter) (Applause)
Okay. So for the last part, the last few minutes, what I want to do is change gears and talk about some really new, breaking areas of neuroscience, which is the association between mental health, mental illness and sleep disruption. We've known for 130 years that in severe mental illness, there is always, always sleep disruption, but it's been largely ignored. In the 1970s, when people started to think about this again, they said, "Yes, well, of course you have sleep disruption in schizophrenia because they're on anti-psychotics. It's the anti-psychotics causing the sleep problems," ignoring the fact that for a hundred years previously, sleep disruption had been reported before anti-psychotics.
So what's going on? Lots of groups, several groups are studying conditions like depression, schizophrenia and bipolar, and what's going on in terms of sleep disruption. We have a big study which we published last year on schizophrenia, and the data were quite extraordinary. In those individuals with schizophrenia, much of the time, they were awake during the night phase and then they were asleep during the day. Other groups showed no 24-hour patterns whatsoever. Their sleep was absolutely smashed. And some had no ability to regulate their sleep by the light-dark cycle. They were getting up later and later and later and later each night. It was smashed.
So what's going on? And the really exciting news is that mental illness and sleep are not sim*** associated but they are physically linked within the brain. The neural networks that predispose you to normal sleep, give you normal sleep, and those that give you normal mental health are overlapping. And what's the evidence for that? Well, genes that have been shown to be very important in the generation of normal sleep, when mutated, when changed, also predispose individuals to mental health problems. And last year, we published a study which showed that a gene that's been linked to schizophrenia, which, when mutated, also smashes the sleep. So we have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlap between these two important systems.
Other work flowed from these studies. The first was that sleep disruption actually precedes certain types of mental illness, and we've shown that in those young individuals who are at high risk of developing bipolar disorder, they already have a sleep abnormality prior to any clinical diagnosis of bipolar. The other bit of data was that sleep disruption may actually exacerbate, make worse the mental illness state. My colleague Dan Freeman has used a range of agents which have stabilized sleep and reduced levels of paranoia in those individuals by 50 percent.
So what have we got? We've got, in these connections, some really exciting things. In terms of the neuroscience, by understanding the neuroscience of these two systems, we're really beginning to understand how both sleep and mental illness are generated and regulated within the brain. The second area is that if we can use sleep and sleep disruption as an early warning signal, then we have the chance of going in. If we know that these individuals are vulnerable, early intervention then becomes possible. And the third, which I think is the most exciting, is that we can think of the sleep centers within the brain as a new therapeutic target. Stabilize sleep in those individuals who are vulnerable, we can certainly make them healthier, but also alleviate some of the appalling symptoms of mental illness.
So let me just finish. What I started by saying is take sleep seriously. Our attitudes toward sleep are so very different from a pre-industrial age, when we were almost wrapped in a duvet. We used to understand intuitively the importance of sleep. And this isn't some sort of crystal-waving nonsense. This is a pragmatic response to good health. If you have good sleep, it increases your concentration, attention, decision-making, creativity, social skills, health. If you get sleep, it reduces your mood changes, your stress, your levels of anger, your impulsivity, and your tendency to drink and take drugs. And we finished by saying that an understanding of the neuroscience of sleep is really informing the way we think about some of the causes of mental illness, and indeed is providing us new ways to treat these incredibly debilitating conditions.
Jim Butcher, the fantasy writer, said, "Sleep is God. Go worship." And I can only recommend that you do the same.
Thank you for your attention.
(Applause)
When you are a kid, you get asked this one particular question a lot, it really gets kind of annoying. What do you want to be when you grow up? Now, adults are hoping for answers like, I want to be an astronaut or I want to be a neurosurgeon, you’re adults in your imaginations.
Kids, they’re most likely to answer with pro-skateboarder, surfer or minecraft player. I asked my little brother, and he said, seriously dude, I’m 10, I have no idea, probably a pro-skier, let’s go get some ice cream.
See, us kids are going to answer something we’re stoked on, what we think is cool, what we have experience with, and that’s typically the opposite of what adults want to hear.
But if you ask a little kid, sometimes you’ll get the best answer, something so simple, so obvious and really profound. When I grow up, I want to be happy.
For me, when I grow up, I want to continue to be happy like I am now. I’m stoked to be here at TedEx, I mean, I’ve been watching Ted videos for as long as I can remember, but I never thought I’d make it on the stage here so soon. I mean, I just became a teenager, and like most teenage boys, I spend most of my time wondering, how did my room get so messy all on its own.
Did I take a shower today? And the most perplexing of all, how do I get girls to like me? Neurosciences say that the teenage brain is pretty weird, our prefrontal cortex is underdeveloped, but we actually have more neurons than adults, which is why we can be so creative, and impulsive and moody and get bummed out.
But what bums me out is to know that, a lot of kids today are just wishing to be happy, to be healthy, to be safe, not bullied, and be loved for who they are. So it seems to me when adults say, what do you want to be when you grow up? They just assume that you’ll automatically be happy and healthy.
Well, maybe that’s not the case, go to school, go to college, get a job, get married, boom, then you’ll be happy, right? You don’t seem to make learning how to be happy and healthy a priority in our schools, it’s separate from schools. And for some kids, it doesn’t exists at all? But what if we didn’t make it separate? What if we based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy, because that’s what it is, a practice, and a simple practice at that?
Education is important, but why is being happy and healthy not considered education, I just don’t get it. So I’ve been studying the science of being happy and healthy. It really comes down to practicing these eight things. Exercise, diet and nutrition, time in nature, contribution, service to others, relationships, recreation, relaxation and stress management, and religious or spiritual involvement, yes, got that one.
So these eight things come from Dr. Roger Walsh, he calls them Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes or TLCs for short. He is a scientist that studies how to be happy and healthy. In researching this talk, I got a chance to ask him a few questions like; do you think that our schools today are making these eight TLCs a priority? His response was no surprise, it was essentially no. But he did say that many people do try to get this kind of education outside of the traditional arena, through reading and practices such as meditation or yoga.
But what I thought was his best response was that, much of education is oriented for better or worse towards making a living rather than making a life.
In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson gave the most popular Ted talk of all time. Schools kill creativity. His message is that creativity is as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.
A lot of parents watched those videos, some of those parents like mine counted it as one of the reasons they felt confident to pull their kids from traditional school to try something different. I realized I’m part of this small, but growing revolution of kids who are going about their education differently, and you know what? It freaks a lot of people out.
Even though I was only nine, when my parents pulled me out of the school system, I can still remember my mom being in tears when some of her friends told her she was crazy and it was a stupid idea.
Looking back, I’m thankful she didn’t cave to peer pressure, and I think she is too. So, out of the 200 million people that have watched Sir Ken Robinson’s talk, why aren’t there more kids like me out there?
Shane McConkey is my hero. I loved him because he was the world’s best skier. But then, one day I realized what I really loved about Shane, he was a hacker. Not a computer hacker, he hacked skiing. His creativity and inventions made skiing what it is today, and why I love to ski. A lot of people think of hackers as geeky computer nerds who live in their parent’s basement and spread computer viruses, but I don’t see it that way.
I'd like to share with you a discovery that I made a few months ago while writing an article for Italian Wired. I always keep my thesaurus handy whenever I'm writing anything, but I'd already finished editing the piece, and I realized that I had never once in my life looked up the word "disabled" to see what I'd find.
Let me read you the entry. "Disabled, adjective: crippled, helpless, useless, wrecked, stalled, maimed, wounded, mangled, lame, mutilated, run-down, worn-out, weakened, impotent, castrated, paralyzed, handicapped, senile, decrepit, laid-up, done-up, done-for, done-in cracked-up, counted-out; see also hurt, useless and weak. Antonyms, healthy, strong, capable." I was reading this list out loud to a friend and at first was laughing, it was so ludicrous, but I'd just gotten past "mangled," and my voice broke, and I had to stop and collect myself from the emotional shock and impact that the assault from these words unleashed.
You know, of course, this is my raggedy old thesaurus so I'm thinking this must be an ancient print date, right? But, in fact, the print date was the early 1980s, when I would have been starting primary school and forming an understanding of myself outside the family unit and as related to the other kids and the world around me. And, needless to say, thank God I wasn't using a thesaurus back then. I mean, from this entry, it would seem that I was born into a world that perceived someone like me to have nothing positive whatsoever going for them, when in fact, today I'm celebrated for the opportunities and adventures my life has procured.
So, I immediately went to look up the 2009 online edition, expecting to find a revision worth noting. Here's the updated version of this entry. Unfortunately, it's not much better. I find the last two words under "Near Antonyms," particularly unsettling: "whole" and "wholesome."
So, it's not just about the words. It's what we believe about people when we name them with these words. It's about the values behind the words, and how we construct those values. Our language affects our thinking and how we view the world and how we view other people. In fact, many ancient societies, including the Greeks and the Romans, believed that to utter a curse verbally was so powerful, because to say the thing out loud brought it into existence. So, what reality do we want to call into existence: a person who is limited, or a person who's empowered? By casually doing something as simple as naming a person, a child, we might be putting lids and casting shadows on their power. Wouldn't we want to open doors for them instead?
One such person who opened doors for me was my childhood doctor at the A.I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. His name was Dr. Pizzutillo, an Italian American, whose name, apparently, was too difficult for most Americans to pronounce, so he went by Dr. P. And Dr. P always wore really colorful bow ties and had the very perfect disposition to work with children.
I loved almost everything about my time spent at this hospital, with the exception of my physical therapy sessions. I had to do what seemed like innumerable repetitions of exercises with these thick, elastic bands -- different colors, you know -- to help build up my leg muscles, and I hated these bands more than anything -- I hated them, had names for them. I hated them. And, you know, I was already bargaining, as a five year-old child, with Dr. P to try to get out of doing these exercises, unsuccessfully, of course. And, one day, he came in to my session -- exhaustive and unforgiving, these sessions -- and he said to me, "Wow. Aimee, you are such a strong and powerful little girl, I think you're going to break one of those bands. When you do break it, I'm going to give you a hundred bucks."
Now, of course, this was a simple ploy on Dr. P's part to get me to do the exercises I didn't want to do before the prospect of being the richest five-year-old in the second floor ward, but what he effectively did for me was reshape an awful daily occurrence into a new and promising experience for me. And I have to wonder today to what extent his vision and his declaration of me as a strong and powerful little girl shaped my own view of myself as an inherently strong, powerful and athletic person well into the future.
This is an example of how adults in positions of power can ignite the power of a child. But, in the previous instances of those thesaurus entries, our language isn't allowing us to evolve into the reality that we would all want, the possibility of an individual to see themselves as capable. Our language hasn't caught up with the changes in our society, many of which have been brought about by technology. Certainly, from a medical standpoint, my legs, laser surgery for vision impairment, titanium knees and hip replacements for aging bodies that are allowing people to more fully engage with their abilities, and move beyond the limits that nature has imposed on them -- not to mention social networking platforms allow people to self-identify, to claim their own descriptions of themselves, so they can go align with global groups of their own choosing. So, perhaps technology is revealing more clearly to us now what has always been a truth: that everyone has something rare and powerful to offer our society, and that the human ability to adapt is our greatest asset.
