Rick’s journey: Lessons of Manhood From "The Walking Dead" Conclusion

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too..."

Rudyard Kipling

Carl thinks he'd be fine if Rick is dead.  He initiates his own rites of passage into manhood, barely making it out alive.  But he does.  He "wins." But when he has a dream (?) about his dad becoming a zombie, he can't kill his dad.  He's scared.  He's alone. 

Rick wakes up after almost being beaten to death by The Governor.  He realizes what has seemed obvious to everyone:  The world is not going to go back to the way it was.  He tried to hold on to that hope for his son and daughter. But he accepts reality, and apologizes to his son.

"You're a man Carl."

And with that, before they receive the hope of the return of a lost friend, we simply have two men.  Where will this journey lead them?  What will this journey make them?  We don't know yet, but what we do know is that so far they, and Michonne, have made a choice:

They are not zombies. 

They will not be zombies. 

We still have two men and a woman.

We see a woman's tears when she sees the silhouette of these two men. 

We hear a man's laughter when he sees her.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Rudyard Kipling

Lessons on speaking effectively

"Your only real job in giving a talk is to have something valuable to say, and to say it authentically in your own unique way." Chris Anderson, head of TED.

I'm reading, "TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking." I'm going to share what I learn with you, which helps me to learn and apply what I'm reading.  I hope it helps you too.

We all know how it feels to listen, and what makes it easy or hard to do so:

• When people talk too long, 
• don't stay on topic,
• talk too loudly or softly, 
• say things we aren't interested in, 
• when they are confusing, 
• or too excited.  

We all know what makes listening hard, and what makes it easy.

For me, talking and listening are the key skills of all life, and everyone can learn them.  I love all forms of communication, including singing, rapping, spoken word poetry, and writing.  But we can't do these things all of the time, all day, everyday.  But we can, and do, speak and listen daily.  And I want my speaking and listening to be as beautiful as music or spoken word poetry.

To achieve this, I went to the library to check out "How to Speak and How to Listen," but it wasn't at the library. So I checked out the TED talk book instead.  I'm enjoying the introduction.  Especially these quotes:

"The house lights dim.  A woman, her palms sweating, her legs trembling just a little, steps out onto the stage.  A spotlight hits her face, and 1,200 pairs of eyes lock onto hers.  The audience senses her nervousness.  There is a palpable tension in the room.  She clears her throat and starts to speak.

What happens next is astounding.

The 1,200 brains inside the heads  of 1,200 independent individuals start to behave very strangely. They begin to sync up.  A magic spell woven by the woman washes over each person.  They gasp together.  Laugh together.  Weep together.  And as they do so, something else happens.  Rich, neurologically encoded patterns  of information inside the woman's brain are somehow copied and transferred to the 1,200 brains in the audience.  These patterns will remain in those brains for the rest of their lives, potentially impacting their behavior years into the future.

The woman on the stage is weaving wonder, not witchcraft.  But her skills are as potent as any sorcery.

Ants shape each other's behavior by exchanging chemicals. We do it by standing in front of each other, peering into each other's eyes, waving our hands and emitting strange sounds from our mouths.  Human-to-human communication is a true wonder of the world. We do it unconsciously every day.  And it reaches its most intense form on the public stage."

 (Concerning rhetoric) "The word's core meaning is simply 'the art of speaking effectively.' Fundamentally, that's the purpose of this book.  To recast rhetoric for the modern era."

I'm done with the introduction.  As I learn, I'll share with you.  Thank you for your time and attention.