My notes from Roberta Conner’s presentation at the inaugural TEDx Portland presentation.

• The name my grandmother gave me when I was 13 references a time when the glaciers were melting, and the land was flooding. It’s an old name.
• 100 years ago my grandmother was standing on the banks
• take care of your body. 
• bears eat berries, birds eat berries, you are not the only consumer of these berries.
• all things must be in balance: man and woman, day and night, abundance and scarcity.
• when things are out of balance, you can tell. there will be more scarcity for some. you can tell when there is too much testosterone or estrogen in a room.
• we are laying to rest the elders who learned languages as children, as opposed to those who are learning it today in the classroom.
• we humans don’t make the earth turn, or the moon shine. we are humble.
• indigenous cultures who are trying to keep their cultures alive are trying to protect an enormous database of ecological information that can protect us.
• we know things like where there are condor habitat, that scientists don’t know.
• there is no world for wilderness in our language because all places are known. all places are some indigenous tribes home. 
• culture and language teach us that we are not the most important thing. we are not in charge of the wildlife or animals.
• the places with the lowest economic development have the greatest wildlife. the industrial revolution passed those places by. this is good. all things in balance.
• indigenous names and languages help us maintain our store of knowledge. it is not meant to leave anyone out.
• scientists and indigenous speakers need each other. 
• living in a place for thousand and thousands are empirical and longitudinal. it’s not double blind, but we know what a place’s carrying capacity is. we know what happens when a place is overhunted or overpopulated.
• we know that roads don’t belong in river bottoms. we know that garbage and pollution cannot accumulate.
• live as though your ancestors thousands of years from now will live in your backyard.

I’m at TEDx Portland, the first Portland TED event.

The first speaker today was Greg Bell, very inspiring. Here’s my notes from his talk.

• What if you started your day by clapping for each other?
• The cynics and the negaholics are winning.
• We need to ask ourselves different questions. if you ask yourself lousy questions, you get lousy answers.
• Ask yourself:
• what’s going well?
• Even the negaholic can find something. “At least I woke up.”
• When you wake up, it sets the tone for your day. And when you go to sleep, it sets the tone for your dreams.
• Before my toes hit the ground, I set the tone for the day: What’s going well?
• “I am from another planet…. I grew up in Texas.”
• I grew up in a house with no indoor plumbing. We were so poor. So poor you can’t even imagine it.
• But we never knew it.
• Because of my grandfather.
• A brilliant man, it was like living with socrates, aristotle, and plato all in one.
• he would farm the land. my job was to bring water to him.
• he always had a big smile on his face, and he would drop a pearl of wisdom.
• love and wisdom multiply.
• crossroads
• important for us to think about
• which way do we go in our lives?
• three roads of battle: with ourselves, each other, and nature.
• you are a miracle. everybody in this room is a miracle.
• when you point to yourself, you point to your heart. follow your heart, clear your mind, and 
• giant timber bamboo. the farmer will water the seed for a year, and see nothing. they water it for another year, and another year. but then it grows 1 1/2 feet per day to a height of 90 feet. one grove grew at 4 feet per day.
• Water The Bamboo: Feed your dreams.
• people will diminish your dreams. “what are you doing over there?” they don’t see anything. tell them to mind their own bamboo.
• grandfather said “everyone gets an acre. take care of your acre.”
• we have to be a bit more patient than our instant gratification society.
• it takes time. 
• no farmer in the world would ever dig up a seed to see if it is growing.
• be a bamboo farmer.
• have patience, persistence, discipline. 
• None of are perfect. We need courage, because there is doubt in us.
• Bring your heart and spirit to your life.
• You have to have belief. How do you do that? How you talk to yourself. What your language is like. 90% of conversations are with yourself. Change your language.
• All great things start in your head.
• Confucius said “every great journey starts with a single step.” but really it out to start with a compass or a map or someone to follow. where are we going?
• Happy people like what’s happening. If you make your values your habit, then you would like what’s happening, and then you would be happy.
• find something you can do in the next 24 hours, 48 hours around your values. one thing, no matter how small. you will be happy.
• We have math classes, and science class, but we don’t have relationship classes. What do you care about more, algebra or relationships?