TedxUIdaho has diverse morning session on kindness, the pursuit of excellence

Students and community members gathered Saturday morning to hear what their peers and neighbors had to say as part of the student-led TedxUIdaho, licensed by Ted Talks.

The first speaker of the morning, Jamie Derrick, a UI professor of psychology and communication studies, took the stage to talk about “A Kindness Revolution.”

“As a psychologist, I”ve learned how kindness can help,” Derrick said.

About five years ago, she began what she called a kindness practice: be kind – always.

When someone chooses kindness, such as paying for coffee for the next person in line who is clearly having a bad day or not be angered when someone runs into them on the sidewalk, everyone benefits, she said.

“When we chose kindness, it can spread contagiously,” Derrick said.

Noah Kroese, an artist and designer, explained the “Gulf of Insurmountability” – the distance between ordinary people and creative geniuses.

It turns out, he said, the distance is much smaller than it seemed.

“Maybe the only extraordinary thing I do is how much I love it,” Kroese said.

He said he had an idea for a book, whenever he began to write, all he could think about were all the things he couldn”t do.

“What I had in mind was a king-size graphic novel slash children”s book,” he said.

It took him nine years to complete once he got going. He said he thought the creative geniuses made work easily, without a struggle.

“My concept of how things got made was a bit screwy,” Kroese said. “We”re not privy to their struggle, so we assume it came easy to them.”

He said he doesn”t classify his completed book as a great work of art, but the gap has closed.

“It”s the ordinary people who make the interesting things,” Kroese said.

Steven Amstrup, a scientist who has spent over 27 years studying polar bears, asked the audience if they should be concerned with when something will happen or the fact that it will happen.

He focused his presentation on polar bears and climate change.

“I”m trying to save the world, one polar bear at a time,” Amstrup said.

When tasked with a research deadline, he said he moved into his office –  literally. The stress of his job on his marriage made his wife ask him why he was doing it at all.

“We could benefit the rest of life on earth,” he said.

He said the implications for polar bears are clear. The ice in their preferred habitat is receding, threatening the species. Amstrup said polar bears were added to the threatened species list, but they first had to establish a timeline.

“The important thing is not when something is likely to occur, but that it is likely to occur,” he said. “Should we be concerned about the next hundred years or should we be concerned we”re on a path we might not like?”

Katelyn Hilsenbeck can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Katelyn_mh

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