I had written about Sir Ken’s first talk in TED earlier and today I had a chance to hear him again. The last talk did change me in the way I looked at what my kids wanted and as a result my daughter whom we were pushing for violin classes, given a choice stopped it and enrolled in Gymnastics.

Now the result is that I don’t have to remember the dates of the classes, nor do I have to ask her to practice. She notes the dates, and makes sure to get my keys in time to driver her to the Gymnastics lessons. Now we have a much happier young lady at home.

The last talk also made me revisit my life in a way I had not done before, but the path to realizing passions were getting much treacherous with the lifestyle we had and bills to pay and whole load of other crap that makes us want to be something the world expects us to be.

But this talk has given me a better way to think. It will take a lot of courage to accept what is being said by him because it will dismantle many things that we have been tuned to believe in education. Again it is not just about education, it is about who we are. It is about who we have become and what we could become. And the interesting thing about the talk is that we if we have a few breaths left in us, we still have the chance to change it.

And finally as he quotes W B Yeats

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

And closes it telling us that our children spread their dreams under our feet and we should tread them softly

And I guess from now on I will join my kids as they spread their dreams, for I too have them and the time is never late

Enjoy the Talk

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