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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-12
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9rgUeEb7wM
age the world the first line of Mary Oliver's poem this summer day she finds inspiration in nature she sees the familiar through fresh eyes the architecture of a leaf the perfection in a pine cone she's not stopping to smell the flowers now she she's discovering the poetry among the wings who made the world wealthy couple nights ago I looked up you know what I saw a
whole lot a lot a lot that's my song the no clouds so there were stars stars in the world of expansive so I started to contemplate the grand design did you know that from here to the sun ninety three million miles I would get this you can fit one point three million planet earth into the sun not not that you'd want to it's not actually very
proud anyway the point is the point is compared to the sun the earth is just %HESITATION back and if the earth is this fact what does that made us you know there should be a trigger warning for looking up because the more you see the more you see that your hopes and your dreams and your wishes and your success in your private it would it would
even begin to fill a speck of a speck of a speck of a speck of so how on earth do we even that this is a great pep talk yeah I feel better already now I went to concordant college right down the way lived in the dorms now the dorms very nice on but no dorms are dorms every floor looks like the next one of the
last one one night a guy we gonna call Robbie came home very early slash late and he discovered that his key didn't work the door didn't open and this really bothered him you see it Robbie had been out in join beverages with his buddies so he was but he was told he would hate passes bedtime too much clobbered who laid so I decided well wait a
second my roommates home I'm just gonna come and knock it's late slash early I'm just gonna not to knock no answer okay knocks again no answer we heard some buddies and Suzanne there and I'm out here so to sighs gonna kick the door citizen or look at nothing another tech nothing after about fifteen sixteen tickets well there was something his roommate click unlocks the door stumbles
back to bed Robbie hits the head is out like a light well the next morning Robbie wakes up to discover that he is in someone else's bed in the wrong room on the wrong floor this scene Goldilocks here he lives in three a one this is two oh one you know in our society there's this idea that we have to kick down the door we have
to beat down the door in order to be successful what I you're just going to end up in somebody else's room probably in some else's bed just go through the doors that open you know a closed door and an open door the most divine answers you will ever get go through the doors that open this is van Cliburn he became he became a rock star you
guys Towle rockstar after he won a piano contests I know stay but stay with me on this one he won a piano competition his nineteen fifty eight it was the height of the Cold War the Soviets the U. S. they were in the seismic power struggle and the Soviets decided they're going to have an international piano competition no contest really is he be held in Moscow
with Russian judges Russian audience possibly a Russian winter until van Cliburn showed up an American just twenty three years old and he dazzled them any charm them and he won he won because he was on deniable and when he won we did too because when the Russian people met him heard him play well they started to see all Americans in a fresh new way and that
was the night the Cold War began to thaw van Cliburn changed the geo political course of history and he didn't do with a Smith and Wesson he did it with an S. kid how does that happen how does he change the world door number one is his mama mama Cliburn real to be she was a piano teacher in town taught him how to play until he
was seventeen went to York when she was young should also studied in New York and her teacher was a man named Arthur Friedheim Arthur Friedheim Arthur Friedheim door number two studied with a composer named Franz Liszt and Franz Liszt when his teacher was Carl churning the father of modern piano technique the churning method and Shirley's teacher was Beethoven and Beethoven's teacher wasn't he and the first
teacher was had our and Hiller's teacher was home yes and his teacher was Johann Sebastian Bach as it turns out the journey from here to the sun is it so far after all I used to teach community college part time but I ended up being a full time mentor I taught Stephen at a community college in East Los Angeles well class started in about a week
and he comes to mediascape can read something to make something has been working on sure no worries now Stephen has no public speaking back on nine I had no expectations but while well no words it it was the worst speech I've ever heard just off but somewhere along the way about mess of a performance I heard something this speech was a dramatic interpretation of literature basically
apply scene from a play and part of the performers job is to figure out the character who are you what do you want how are you going to get it and Stephen was making these choices naturally he was making was making character choices like ninety percent of the kids in that school Stephen is Latino and the first miss family to go to college like his friends
you know took him a minute to get his bearings for example when I met him he was still majoring in the most popular all such acts undecided he had the will but no way his second speech what you describe riding a Harley Davidson and he'd never touched one night some friends right Harleys for a hobby she's at television star her husband is a successful business person
could we just drive up to the house and you just see I'm sure no no worries come on up so on the appointed day we drive up to Beverly hills and the homes there are no tacular they're important looking my friends are really down to earth and they came out and greeted us and they said well Stephen do you want to go for a ride do
you want to go for a ride of course he wants to go for a ride they were off they were off when they returned he was his penis so excited but on the drive back to my place he was really quiet really quiet I just sat there he just sat there and wouldn't look each other's guys do on their symbol was sub and he said I
don't want to be I'm not those words just shared into my heart but I'm then de something now here without speech he became a national gold speech the first in our colleges history and now the eyes of Texas were upon him they gave him a scholarship to transfer their to be on the national championship team and in a few days he'll be walking on to the
campus of the mighty Trojans U. S. C. to begin his masters degree at a communications school that happens to be one of the top on the planet Stephen made himself on deniable and he did it by making character choices who am I what I want how my gonna get it you know when you're you mentor somebody Stephen it's tempting to believe that you are rescuing them
now now because the life for the life you say might be your own because now you're seeing the world for fresher you're not speck of a speck of I suspect no you are necessary to this grand design and %HESITATION are you for because now you finally realize that you you you you are an open door so who made the world I think we all did because
