I love listening to lectures.
Not the boring sitting in a deck chair, "get me through this class so I can graduate" kind of brain dump, but the thought provoking insights that one can get only from a person speaking from within the wind of their own passions.
Here are a few I have experienced recently:
Last weekend I took the kids down to Ft. Bragg to see a friend and her new baby. I had such a great time with her and her kids (North can skateboard now!) On the way back I took Highway 20 to 101. I usually go up through Highway 1 but the route is scary isolated and so much more twisty, curvey. I think I will be choosing the 20 from now on.
Anyway back to the point, as the kids were asleep, I took the opportunity to listen to the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. He was a virtual reality computer scientist who was given only months to live after being diagnosted with pancriatic cancer in 2007. Shortly after the dignosis, he was also asked to participate in a lecture series at Carnegie University. He titled his talk, "Achieving your Life Dreams." Did I mention that he had three small children at the time? 5 years old, 3 years old, and 1; these kids needed his lecture as much as he did.
It was a beautiful piece of work.
I also try to listen to Humankind on the radio a few afternoons a week. It is a program that explores different concepts with the unifying themes of hope, community, and the insightful ideas that can only come from seeing another person's perspective.
* Post note *
I started working on this post last night, but my thought process was broken by the ringing of a baby alarm clock. Sky starts out his nighttime sleeping in a crib most every night. However, every night, he will wake up at 10pm. Right at 10! Sometimes a minute or two early, sometimes 15 minutes late. It is really amusing. Reed has tried to soothe him back into sleep, but Sky only wants nursing. Although I would love to be free and check my baby at the door, I go along with his needs. It is too important to me not to react. So I apologize for the shoddy editing if you caught the post that wasn't meant to be posted. All is well now.