I was born with a familial tremor, that very mild hand-shaking you see when you’re holding a glass of red wine and standing on white carpet. It gets worse with age. Once I could hide it, but now I’ve come to accept it and I approach it head-on with new people, explaining it with a quick introduction into my family tree, “…my sister has it, my cousins have it, my aunt has it, my father had it…”. I use humor to put people at ease. Usually it’s something like, “This is not good for pouring hot coffee, but I can make a great martini (shaken, not stirred) without really trying.” I thought this was an original line, until I saw this TED talk by Phil Hansen. It’s called, Embrace the Shake.
As we approach this year’s TEDxGreenville event, Unzipped, I found it particularly appropriate. Why hide something like a tremor, when it’s much easier to talk about it, get it out of the way and move on with life?
Maysoon Zayid has cerebral palsy. She is gorgeous, she is funny and she’s used humor and determination to become a successful member of her community. While she proclaims, “…I’m not inspirational”, see if you don’t agree with me that, if ever anyone was, she surely is! Her talk from TEDWomen 2013 is I got 99 problems…palsy is just one. You will laugh, you will cheer, you will stand up and applaud, you will cry and you will never forget how strong and resilient people can be.
After watching these two talks, I’m sure you’ll be ready for TEDxGreenville 2014: Unzipped.
