My daughter (who is an alumna) and I just returned from the 2014 TEDx at the university where I teach.  It was so incredible until I feel like my head is about to explode because it is so full of awesome new knowledge.  It lasted from 1-6, and at the end you were tired, but wanted it to go on and on.  

Humanity is just incredible.  People are so absolutely, unbelievably creative.  I love, love, love it.  How could anyone ever want to repress that?  It is so earth-shatteringly great.

Where else, in that span of time could you see:

* a NASA scientist in charge of the Keplar Mission’s hunt for other earth-like planets in our solar system explain why we need to do so (Roger Hunter)

* a female African American neuroscience psychologist (now a teacher of young kids in a school that teaches by allowing kids to pursue their natural interests) that used deciding to wear her hair naturally as both a lesson in being natural and as a metaphor for allowing children to learn naturally (Lora Smothers)

* a black lawyer/head of the NAACP/minister passionately and eloquently advocate for speaking about race rather than ignoring it (Francys Johnson)

* a young, African American lesbian poet who blasted every one of our hearts wide open with her unbelievably powerful spoken-word poems (Megan Pendleton)

* a young woman extol the virtues of a new  you-do-you approach to feminism (Lindsey Cook)

* a dreadlocked college professor explain in the most professional, compelling and impressive terms the power of hip hop in education for children who use it as a cultural context (Dr. Bettina Love)

* a musician who went back and forth from the music scenes of Indonesia to the music scene of Athens, GA to create a way for musicians in each of those places to avoid the prism through which their music was filtered and create beautiful music that spoke a pure message of acceptance despite difference for each and despite the fact that music was being created by many people who would never see each other (Kai Riedl)

* an extremely impressive black male college student who, as a living example, convinced us of the value of pursuing the oft-avoided activity of debate (Narke Norton)

* a female faculty member who went into all-male mechanical engineering, use her love of sky-diving as one of several examples of reasons not to live your life based on the expectations of others (Nadia Kellam)

* a lively woman urging us to play more in life (Elizabeth Brantley)

* a personable singer/guitar player music therapist who, after immediately bringing her full presence to the stage and putting the audience at ease, brought down the house with her full-throated lively and robust original renditions (Kyshona Armstrong)

* a young corporate America golden-haired boy-turned entrepreneur who urged us to live for Monday rather than TGIF by doing a job we love (Barrett Brooks)

* a graphic artist who designed a touching map of human activity that is now digital (Sarah Lawrence)

* a microbiologist who actually made us understand why improving vaccines for water buffalo makes imminent sense (Farah Samli)

* and a music business faculty member who made us understand why  it is important to allow people to do what they naturally love (David Barbe)?  

All this and a performance by the university’s ballroom performance group, and comestibles, to boot!  

It was beyond awesome.  Each and every one of the presentations was top notch.  Well-executed, informative, innovative, and mind-expanding.   Definitely time well spent.

It is going to take me a while to process this.  I’m sure that 1) it will be reverberating with me for days, and 2)  I will have more to say as I do.  

But, for now, let me just say that the whole idea behind TED Talks, and their tagline, is that they are “ideas worth spreading.”  

That was certainly the case with the talks today.