TED Talk #2

Reflection on Shekhar Kapur: We are the stories we tell ourselves

I found this short video to be validating and lilluminating.  I won't be discussing this video in a linear fashion - I will pop around a bit because it has my mind bubbling.

I liked how Shekhar Kapur talked about chaos and how it is needed for creativity. My own classroom is chaotic at times and I can tolerate it well if I know my students are working. I get self-conscious if an "outsider" is in the room because others expect quiet organization. If the students are off track, I implement "order " and then talk to the students about why I made the choice that I did.

Also as a teacher I picked up that Shekhar Kapur was thinking really abstractly for a seven year old. Asking his father about and getting emotional over ontological questions so young only reinforces evidence for his giftedness. This portion of the video also had me thinking about the Wrinkle in Time series, and how questions about physics can be understood so young and still be relevant when a person is older.

I listened attentively to his waxing poetic over the need to create panic in order to get out of his mind and connect to the greater universe.  I have had panic attacks since I was eight years old. I dare say that panic gets you out of your mind! I know that Shekhar Kapur was discussing an induced and less dramatic panic. I have also heard that panic attacks are symptomatic of unexpressed creativity. Thinking about panic makes me panic! Is that a good thing?

I like how he had a conception of the big bang happening again and again. This thought came to my mind when I was in a high school biology class, of all places. Before I had heard of Stephen Hawking or his theories. It is neat how different people in different places can come to similar conclusions.

Do some of us love books so much because the stories hep define our identity?

But it was Shekhar Kapur's dialogue and romanticism about story and storytelling that had me eating symbolic cookies on a bender. In college I was told that narrative in photography was not acceptable and not "art." Ever since then I have been rebelling by creating narrative art and researching the use of storytelling and fairytale in different cultures. This TED talk also had me thinking a lot about Big Fish, one of my favorite movies. "We are the stories we tell ourselves." "Story is the relationship we have between who we are and the infinite world." Shekhar Kapur talking about translating the stories into film made me think about how communicating stories about who I am into still photography would be a valid project to start this summer,