Fast Forward

Febuary 5th, 2032 is just another typical day in the life of Mattingly Marie Blahblahblah, a 36-year-old orthodontist living in San Diego. She wakes up every morning at 5:30 am in order to get to work on time -- except for Fridays, of course, because anyone who is their own boss would never work more than 4 days a week. After making breakfast for her 4-year-old Jocelyn and 2-year-old Brady, she says goodbye to her husband, Mr. Blahblahblah, and heads to the office.

Even though winter is still going strong, the weather is beautiful – the sun is just beginning to peak out of the trees, and a cool breeze brings the fresh salty scent of the ocean to the Blahblahblah residence, a stacked stone two story house with a huge flat backyard. Mattingly pulls out of the garage in her 2030 black camaro convertible – top down, of course – and spends the half hour drive to work on the phone catching up with her brother, who just returned to his home in Dallas after covering the Super Bowl. Work is pretty uneventful, except for taking off one twelve-year-old girl’s braces, who was so ecstatic that she left the office with a huge smile still painted across her face. Mattingly meets up with her husband for lunch at In-n-Out burger – their favorite restaurant – and irons out the details of where to vacation for spring break. After settling on schlepping to Florida and taking the kids to Disney World – because, they both agreed, Disney Land just isn’t the same – Mattingly returns home to work and Mr. Blahblahblah goes back to the Blahblahblah residence, where he designs his latest architecture project in his home office. Mattingly closes up her practice around five and stops by the AT&T store on the way home to pick up her new iPhone 42 (Brady had given the old one to their golden retriever as a chew toy). She pulls into the garage around six o’clock, and walks in to see that dinner was already on the table. She sits down with her family and listens to everyone’s latest stories – Mr. Blahblahblah complains about an annoying client, Jocelyn recites three Disney princess stories in full-fledged anguishing detail, and Brady rattles on about something to do with a dog who had a rake – or maybe it was about a frog in a lake. Mattingly sits back and took it all in, smiling to herself, and daydreams about what the next twenty years had in store for her.

Huck's in Luck

When I started Huck Finn, I wasn't so sure. Actually, I was sure -- sure that I wouldn't like it. It was right after reading another novel. It was long. It was a sequel to a novel I've never read. It was all about hillbillies running rampant on a river and talking in some hyphenated mixed-up language that kinda sorta resembled English. So yes, I was skeptical to say the least. But I stuck to it and kept on reading (not by choice, of course). About halfway through, I realized that I actually liked Huck. I caught myself laughing at him and Jim's antics, and found myself flipping page after page to see what happened to the duo. It turned out to be a pretty quick and easy surface read - analysis and interpretation, as with any literary classic, was lengthy - and I ended up enjoying the novel. Maybe it just comes with experience, but I really feel like I'm picking up on a lot more than I used to. Spotting all those literary elements like foreshadowing and symbolism was almost as easy as playing I Spy with a six year old. Picking out the themes of the novel - not so easy. The whole message about racism and slavery is pretty in-your-face, so I knew that Twain - being the literary genius that he is - had a few more things up his sleeve. I did a little bit of digging, pondering, flipping to random pages, etc. before I fully grasped what he was trying to say to me.
What I stumbled upon makes me think that I need to read the whole book over again. As it turns out, Twain isn't just pointing fingers at the racists - he questions the importance of religion, education, conformity... the list really does go on and on. The jabs he makes at the inherent flaws of human nature were so subtle, so crafty, so brilliantly planted that I guess he convinced me to agree with him before I even realized what I was doing. If Huck Finn hadn't been so successful, I'm sure that Twain would have been a fantastic psychologist. Or politician... but he probably would have made fun of them too.

Talk TED to me

I spent quite some time sifting through the talks on Ted.com until I stumbled upon Gever Tulley's 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do, which not only had a title that caught my eye but also ended up being entertaining and thought provoking (and made me wish that my parents had let me do some of these things when I was younger). Tulley argues that in order to have a safer society, parents must allow their kids to do dangerous things. Makes no sense, right? Wrong. Through a thoughtful and carefully put together presentation, Tulley convinces his audience that a little bit of danger can be a good thing. Well, at least he convinced me.
While running through his "five dangerous things," Tulley concretely appeals to logic, settling the nerves and potential fears of his audience. For instance, he explains that throwing a spear helps children improve attention, coordination, and predictive ability, while allowing them to enhance their muscular, visual, and neurological skills. Keep in mind he's talking about handing a child a spear... but his fascinating facts and valid points make it seem perfectly fine. 
Tulley establishes some ethos right from the get go. He has some fancy pants career title but, more importantly, he founded the Tinkering School, a place where kids can build their creations. The guy obviously has some experience dealing with children and letting children deal with danger. He continues to prove his credibility by knowing his audience and how he needs to conduct himself in order to be as persuasive as possible. He speaks informally, with an overall lighthearted tone- undoubtedly having a caring and serious undertone when it comes to safety issues and dishing out the facts.
Tulley's use of humor is, in my opinion, the most prevalent appeal in the presentation. He starts off by admitting he does not have any children, but "borrows" his friends' children from time to time. Throughout the course of the talk, Tulley ingeniously incorporates funny images into his PowerPoint - there's a picture of a kid in mid-air jumping off a bunk bed as he argues that "kids will always find ways to be dangerous, even if we try to shelter them" and a baby in the driver's seat of a car as he mentions that danger "is fun for the whole family." The audience never failed to burst out laughing when any of these images were presented, thus easing the tension and easing their concerns. Tulley even employs some satire to make his point: he pokes fun at the "overly protective" safety implementations that are in use today (the marshmallow wrapper that said "children should always be seated and supervised while eating" was the one that really got to me).