Premium Points #1
Isabel Allende, a 71-year-old woman, presents a TED Talk titled, “How to Live Passionately – No Matter Your Age.” This title stuck out to me from the beginning because our entire class is about growing throughout middle adulthood and that was the main focus of her talk. In our class, we have learned that as you age, you face a significant number of losses and you must be resilient by continuing throughout your life. Isabel addresses this topic by telling us that she has experienced many losses in the last decade whether it be a death of a loved one, loss of places, the disappearance of youthful energy, or independence, but accepts the losses and looks at the gain in life. She goes on to declare her gains, which consist of freedom, lightness, softness, and spirituality, allowing her to find the quality of mindfulness.
As she mentions spirituality, I thought back to our class and remembered that aging often brings more spirituality to the person as they get closer to the end of life. Isabel finds the Dalai Lama to be inspirational, as she meditates on her life and how she is growing. She believes that meditation helps the acceptance process of aging and encourages everyone to start early in middle adulthood stages.
Isabel speaks consistently on living passionately throughout your life because you are continuously aging from birth till death. However, she explains that although you age, your spirit remains the same and it is important to have a positive attitude and seek a healthy lifestyle. In our class, we know that the person’s outlook on life should be positive to ensure a fulfilling aging process. If we do not live a happy life and find ourselves depressed because of age, then we may not feel satisfied.
Lastly, Isabel noted the ways that she remained passionate about life, which includes saying yes to life, trying to stay in love, and feeling positive about retirement. When Isabel mentions retirement, she expresses the words jubilation and celebration because, at that moment, she knew her dues had been paid to society. Concerning our class, we can tie this statement back to the definition of generativity. Isabel felt that she had left her legacy to the younger generations and had impacted the future, which made her feel accomplished. Although Isabel will continue to age, she will always have a positive mindset and live passionately.
Premium Points #2
In the TED Talk titled, “A Better Way to Talk about Love,” Mandy Len Catron discusses how we speak of love, along with what we expect out of love. In our Human Development class this semester, we often spent time learning about love, which included topics like Sternberg’s Eight Kinds of Love, the Five Love Languages, many aspects of marriage, and relationships. I chose this TED Talk because I knew that we had talked a lot about love and wanted to hear her point of view on love, and I quickly discovered that she wanted to change the term “falling in love” to maybe a phrase like “stepping into love.” She chooses to modify this metaphor because there are often negative connotations to the word “falling,” so she questioned why we would want fall into love. Mandy also dissected the word “smitten” and wondered why that was a word we used to describe love because the root word “smite” does not mean something associated with love. Therefore, she was working to change our perspective on the terms used to describe love and search for that happiness that love should bring, not madness.
As she began to speak, she told us a story about her first love, which she referred to as “Romantic Love,” having passion and intimacy but lacking in commitment. Although she stayed with the man for a couple of years, she found herself searching for a sense of madness that she often associated with love. Mandy believed that if she suffered, then she would be rewarded in the end, but eventually discovered that it only ruined her friendships and many aspects of life. Later, she described experience and language as a continuous cycle that should be experienced through love, which allows you to be open to the other person, be mindful, and be trusting.
Lastly, she expanded on wanting to change the metaphor from falling into love to stepping into love, describing love as a collaborate work of art. Then she drew a perfect picture of love by telling us that love is an aesthetic experience, it is unpredictable and creative, it requires communication and discipline, it can be frustrating and emotionally demanding, love involves both joy and pain, and each experience is different for each relationship. These words helped me to relate back to our classroom discussions about marriage because those are aspects that help you to create a long lasting marriage. Overall, Mandy encouraged everyone to trust in their partner, talk about everything all of the time, and start thinking of what you have to offer as an individual.