What an amazing week we’re having here at TEDActive! The sustainability team grappled with the big question of “How do we grow sustainability?” – and we came up with inspiring ideas to connect people with actions through the TED website. We’re calling it TEDWalks, as in, let’s walk our talk when we think about making our world and thus our lives more sustainable.
When I got back to my hotel room, I was still so energized by our radical collaboration that I wanted to capture our wish in a poem. This immediately led to thoughts of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”, and I adapted the opening lines of the poem. Having always loved his poem I take inspiration from the monumental shift of human consciousness it represents and borrow it for our own. Right here. Right now.
“We see the best minds of our generation enlightened, yet still starving for new ideas. Ideas we can share with the knowing and naked. All of us rising out of the dark streets at dawn, looking for an angry fix.
We dream of connecting all the angel headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection. Like our star of wonder dynamo machinery of night and day. A talky walky machine that sustains what matters and informs our brothers and sisters currently hollow-eyed with the supernatural knowing of a frightening future. We learn language to change and make possible new beauty and find ourselves in radical collaboration floating across the tops of cities - our every utterance data jazz. We call upon all of you who bare your brains in solidarity with the El Mohammedan angels illuminating Africa, now knowing with radiant cool eyes Blake-light tragedy. We make our lives a work of art with an ocean of tears. We reach out to others to help them overcome our fears. We howl to become the change we believe in.”
