News At Idea Festival, it all leads to one big question: Why?
Answers are everywhere, if we only know where to look.
By Michael Kruse, Times Staff Writer
Published October 2, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- At the Idea Festival last month here at the Kentucky International Convention Center, the sessions were about how to think in the 21st century, how we're going to live in the years to come, or whether we're going to live. It all raised the question:
Okay, but what does it all mean?
Parked in the lobby of the convention center was one of those black-and-white VW bugs Best Buy's Geek Squad calls a Geek Mobile. A sign asked people to write on sticky notes their ideas for how to save energy and then paste them on the bug.
Some of the ideas were interesting - edible pen tops, laptops with hand cranks, motion from exercise equipment used to recharge cell phones - but the most compelling ones often were the simplest, and weren't even really about just energy.
Like: "Why is this center air-conditioned so cold? What a waste."
And: "Carpool."
And: "Always turn off the TV."
Or this one: "Get everybody to care just a little bit more."
If only. But maybe that's the meaning of life.
Or maybe it's somewhere in This I Believe. Dan Gediman, the executive producer, talked about the popular public radio series on the third afternoon of the festival. The series originally ran in the '50s, with Edward R. Murrow guiding the way, and Gediman started it up again in 2003.
This I Believe essays hit on the biggies: birth, death, fear, love, giving, sharing.
Susan Cosio, a chaplain from California, in her essay cites Psalm 46: "Be still."
Most of them are like that.
Be curious.
Be brave.
Be nice to the pizza guy.
So maybe Barrington Irving knows the meaning of life. The 23-year-old from inner-city Miami spent 21/2 years raising money to make a solo flight around the world, which he did this past summer. "Just to prove a point," he said in his session.
He flew from Miami to Cleveland to New York to Newfoundland to the Azores to Madrid to Egypt to Dubai to Hong Kong to Alaska to Houston and back, 27,000 miles in 97 days, through a sand storm over Saudi Arabia and a monsoon over Vietnam. His plane had no radar system.
The kid can't even swim.
"You have a passion, you have a dream, and you pursue it," Irving told the large crowd. "You don't let anybody stop you.
"The only thing that can stop you," he said, "is you."
He got a standing ovation.
Ever heard of Dancing Matt from wherethehellismatt.com? He wasn't at the Idea Festival, but check him out on YouTube, where his top video has been watched about 8-million times. There he is, dancing the same ridiculous dance, over and over, but in wild places all around the world, set to a catchy, vaguely exotic song.
Kind of makes you want to go dance in front of elephants in Botswana and seals in the South Shetland Islands and on bridges in Venice and with tortoises in the Galapagos.
So maybe they've got it all figured out, Barrington and Dancing Matt. Or maybe Ray Bradbury knows.
The legendary author of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 came to the Idea Festival as a hologram, brought by Teleportec from his home in Los Angeles to the big ballroom in the convention center in Kentucky. He was compelling, really compelling, and told everybody in the event's closing keynote speech to do what you love, don't listen to the doubters, and so on. Which wasn't exactly new, but . . .
In the question-and-answer session, he was asked about the future, straight up: What is it?
So the hologram told everybody the meaning of life.
"The Cosmos is a theater," Bradbury said, "and it needed an audience.
"I am the audience!
"You are the audience!
"We are the audience!
"The future," Bradbury said, "is to witness and celebrate!"
News researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Michael Kruse can be reached at 813 909-4617 or mkruse@sptimes.com.
3-Part Series: Idea Festival
People got together at the Idea Festival in Louisville, Ky., last month to talk about how we all need to be smarter as we go deeper into the new millennium. Times staff writer Michael Kruse attended and came back with his head full of ideas. Three days' worth.
Sunday: Knowing less and thinking more
Monday: Survival
Today: The meaning of life
See the series at life.tampabay.com.
To know more
ideafestival.com
thisibelieve.org
experienceaviation.org
wherethehellismatt.com
[Last modified October 1, 2007, 18:14:57]
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