Sophisticated Relationships

I hope you are all having a fantastic summer.  A friend just forwarded this free event (see below) next Friday at UCLA. There will be a number of good speakers and very forward-thinking attendees there, so if you can make it, please do (I will be out of town unfortunately).  If you go, I would love to read your comments about your experience at the conference and how what the speakers talked about will impact your life.

On Friday June 27th at UCLA, the Methuselah Foundation is hosting Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications, a panel discussion featuring leading scientists and advocates of stem cell and regenerative medicine research, including Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the Foundation’s Chairman and Chief Science Officer. 

Panelists will discuss the scientific progress and implications of eliminating age-related disease and disability, as well as public policy as it pertains to relevant scientific research legislation, including the passing of Prop 71 that led to establishing the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and allocating $3 billion over 10 years to fund stem cell research.

Aging 2008 is free, with advance registration required at http://www.mfoundation.org/Aging2008/.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey, chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation, said “Our organization has raised over $10 million to crack open the logjams in longevity science. With the two-armed strategy of direct investments into key research projects, and a competitive prize to spur on scientists racing to break rejuvenation and longevity records in lab mice, the Foundation is actively accelerating the drive toward a future free of age-related degeneration.” The Methuselah Foundation has been covered by 60 Minutes, Popular Science, The Wall Street Journal, and other top-flight media outlets.

The speakers at Aging 2008 will argue that the near-term consequences of intense research into regenerative medicine could be the development of therapies that extend healthy human life by decades, even if the therapies are applied in middle age.  Peter Thiel, president of Clarium Capital, initial investor in Facebook, and lead sponsor of Aging 2008, said, “The time has come to challenge the inevitability of aging. This forum will provide an excellent opportunity to look at the scientific barriers that must be over-come to substantially extend healthy human life, as well as the ethical implications of doing so.”

Admission to Aging 2008 is free, with advance registration required at www.mfoundation.org/aging2008.

WHEN:   
Friday, June 27, 2008 
Complimentary Reception – 4:00pm
Panel Discussion  – 5:00pm
Dinner w/ Speakers – 8:00pm  

WHERE:  
Royce Hall, 340 Royce Dr., UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

WHO:  
Presented by the Methuselah Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to extending the healthy human lifespan. Founded in 2002 by entrepreneur David Gobel and biogerontologist Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the Methuselah Foundation funds two major programs: the Mprize, a multimillion dollar research prize, and SENS, a detailed engineering plan to repair aging-related damage.  For more information, visit www.mfoundation.org.  

SPEAKERS:
 * Dr. Aubrey de Grey – Chairman and Chief Science Officer, Methuselah Foundation
 * Dr. Bruce Ames – Professor of Biochemistry, UC Berkeley
 * Dr. William Haseltine – Chairman, Haseltine Global Health
 * Daniel Perry – Executive Director, Alliance for Aging Research
 * Bernard Siegel – Executive Director, Genetics Policy Institute
 * Dr. Gregory Stock – Director, UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society
 * Dr. Michael West – Founder, Geron and Advanced Cell Technology 

See Dr. de Grey’s speech at the TED conference.

See a lecture from Dr. Ames and the Stein Institute.

See Dr. Haseltine in a guest appearance on Charlie Rose, minute starting at 35.24

Tags: Lexi, TED, announcement by Lexi
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“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift of life is yours; . . . and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.” – Dan Zadra

We are all born into circumstances beyond our control. When we are born, we don’t have control over our skin type, eye shape, full potential height or intelligence, religion, family or socio-economic status. We don’t get to choose the family dynamics we get born into, nor what kinds of people our parents are, nor the political climate.

Most people born in the United States are better off than most people in the world. Most people in first world countries have a higher subjective well being (happiness) than most people in less wealthy nations, in part because they don’t have to focus on basic needs [1, 2]. Some cultures place a different emphasis on happiness, thus skewing some of the data [3].

While we are better off objectively, and to some degree subjectively as a group, doesn’t mean that individually we all are. Children from every race and economic level are abused. In 2005 899,000 U.S. children were found to have been abused [4]. None of these children had any choice about what happened to them, more than half were under the age of 7.

On the other hand, some kids have great parents, a myriad of opportunities and a culture that supports their identities. Yet it doesn’t mean that those kids don’t have their own personal tragedies. Some poor kids have wonderful loving parents, while some rich kids have distant absentee or drug abusing parents. There are extremes on both ends, and perception also plays a role in how we see our mess.

Ultimately, we are born into some kind of mess, some messes bigger than others, and at some point, regardless of why we are in that mess, we are the only ones who can make the best of where we’ve found ourselves. It’s a part of growing up.

We can eat the mess, turn it in to fertilizer, look for the pony, or build statues of the Virgin Mary. At some point, if we want something different, we’ve got to claim ownership of the mess. This does not mean it is our fault. It is not fair, and we have the choices to make about what we want to do about that.

“The familiar story of the optimist who is sent to Hell and discovers that he’s up to his shoulders in manure. He immediately jumps into the pile of manure and gleefully starts swimming around. A pessimist walks up (they always do) and asks the optimist why he’s so happy. The optimist replies that with all this manure, there’s got to be a pony somewhere.” ~unknown

Sometimes people will help us with our mess and it helps us get out, and sometimes people help us with the mess and it only gets bigger. Sometimes the people that got us into the mess want to help get us out, and it may or may not result in actual help. And there are some people determined to keep piling on the mess. It’s important that we talk about the messes and how we can reduce or fix the problem.

No one is going to be as determined as you are to get you out of the mess.

One mess that comes to mind is the story of a little girl born to poor unwed teenagers. She was raised in poverty by her grandmother until she was six. At six she went back to live with her mother. She was sexually abused by three relatives, the abuse included rape at the age of nine. By fourteen she ran away and had her own teenage birth, shortly after which her son died. So far it looks like a lot of mess to be born into.

That person, who started a life in poverty and abuse, grew up and into Oprah, an amazing, dynamic, charitable, successful, billionaire woman, with her own book club. I doubt it was at all easy for her. And in spite of all that mess she managed to pull herself out of, there may be some lingering– only she knows and only she can do something about it.

I will probably have to read one of the many bios to figure out how Oprah become who she is today. She had a lot of mess to dig out of. It isn’t something that would have happened over night. It is a process. A dance between accepting things as they are and doing something about them.

There is another story of a man who was a psychiatrist and neurologist. He had a loving wife and children. They were forcibly separated from each other, his wife and children killed. While he remained a prisoner to the unknown, and to the Nazis. I have no doubt that the mess he found himself in was not his fault, and yet he found himself there anyway. He took it upon himself to find meaning in his suffering, and eventually turned his mess into a garden that flourished. That man was Viktor Frankl.

A more recent story involves a boy born to a poor family in Africa, he took it upon himself to build a windmill to help supply his village with electricity. You can watch him speak at one of the TED conferences here.

All of these people have something in common. They are extraordinary thinkers. They all ended up with a problem that was not of their own making and found a way to make the best of it.

We are all born into some kind of mess for which we are not responsible, and if we want something different, we must become responsible for making that happen.

 

 

Lexi

Tags: Lexi, TED, action, character, expectations, relationship with self, well-being by Lexi
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Yesterday I was so focused on finishing the post for Thursday, that when I finished it, I forgot it wasn’t Thursday and posted it a day early! If only my Professors could see me now, a person who didn’t wait until the last minute to do something AND who made multiple revisions before handing in the final product. Sounds like a future topic to me . . . procrastination.

I want to continue to meet expectations and get in the habit of posting on Thursdays, therefor I am posting two speeches from TED on happiness. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design: Ideas worth spreading. From their website:

Our mission: Spreading ideas.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

The first speech is by Barry Schwartz. He is a Professor of Social Theory and Social Action. He has authored or co-authored several books including: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Psychology of Learning and Behavior , and The Costs of Living: How market freedom erodes the best things in life.

If the embedded video is missing, click here.

The next speaker is Dan Gilbert. His speech is interesting to me because it talks about how we can still be happy, even if we don’t get what we think we want, and it is more than just “tricking” ourselves. He is the author of books like Stumbling on Happiness.

If the embedded video is missing, click here.

Enjoy!

Lexi*Bright

Tags: Lexi, TED, happiness, video by Lexi
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