appreciating others: reggie watts & jane fonda

5 Jun

more than anything i want to get out of my comfort zone.  but i don’t try too hard to do so.  a while ago i mentioned liking airplane turbulence because it jolts me out of that zone and there is a bit of unknowing, uncertainty and immediacy about it.  notice i said that airplane turbulence gets me out of my comfort zone.  not bungee jumping or sky diving but air pockets.  that’s what i mean by “i don’t try too hard to do so”.

sometimes – you can be transported outside your mental comfort zone by just watching a video or reading a book and that is where reggie watts comes in. right now, i’m on a flight from dallas to minneapolis – a small regional jet.  i put in my headphones and started in on catching up on some TED videos.  most if not all – can be transporting.  but these in particular i want to share with you.

reggie watts 

is a brooklyn based artist – comedian and musician.  i’d love to see him live.  he improvises much of his act.  i love him because he is completely OUT THERE.  but in a good way!  what went through my head while watching the TED video was this:

what the hell is he talking about?
people are laughing and i don’t get it
i may be stupid
rewind
watch again
really pay attention (note: we’ll talk about that later…)
laugh
watch some more
bob my head and jive
laugh
come to realize he is poking fun at the pseudo intellelectualism
i feared i didn’t have
at the beginning of me watching this
i love it

check his video out and google him.  way to make me thing differently, reggie.

jane fonda

was next.  blown away at how she is giving the “third act” (or aging) a whole new outlook.  she talks about breaking down this curve – you know the curve – you are born, you peak at mid-age then deteriorate as you age – the third act.  jane is challenging “that’s the way we’ve always thought” and i would say winning, if you ask me.  she has a lot to say and some wonderfully deep thoughts like:

when you get older, you review and re-evaluate  what you’ve been told throughout your life by loved ones – or not- and now being of age to challenge those truths or at least come to the realization that those words or actions probably weren’t directed at you but at themselves.  aging lets you heal and see who you really are, maybe.
she also talks about being a girl and then a woman.  how we’re born all authentically true to ourselves and then we grow up and get hit with wanting to be popular and fitting in and being loved and it beats out of us who we really are.  jane says that in the third act, that authentic spirit can come back full force if it is recognized and cherished.
i’ll tell you one thing, jane and reggie are two thinkers that knocked me out of my mind’s comfort zone on my little plane to minneapolis today.
and there wasn’t even any turbulence.

What do you think?

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