security and insecurity

apparently snark's addiction to TED talks has transferred over to me because i've just spent most of the evening, not in my art room as planned, but instead browsing through various speakers on TED and listening to talks on gratitude, prosthetics and sports, fancy internet phone toys, and the concept of security.

eve ensler's insight into our country's security fetish and her examination of concepts of freedom are refreshing. (below are some quotes from her talk.) listening to her, i was reminded of past chats that courtney and i have had together and also of the feminist theory i studied and wrote about at CSU. having vulnerability as an end goal rather than security as a primary focus is great in theory, but oh-so-difficult to maneuver in daily life. still, i think, it is a worthy task to practice and strive for despite its slipperiness, its quality of always trying to shift away from the forefront of one's consciousness. good luck with that to anyone who tries!

“real security is contemplating death, not pretending it doesn’t exist; not running from loss, but entering grief; surrendering to sorrow. . . real security is hungering for connection rather than power. it can not be bought or arranged or made with bombs. it is deeper. it is a process. it is acute awareness that we are all utterly interdependent . . . real security is not only being able to tolerate mystery, complexity, ambiguity, but hungering for them and only trusting a situation when they are present.”

“it does not mean i do not have values or beliefs, but it does mean i’m not hardened around them. i do not use them as weapons. in the shared future, it will be just that: shared. the end goal will be becoming vulnerable, realizing the place of our connection to one another rather than becoming secure, in control . . .”

the best talk, though--the one that was the most meaningful to me--was eve ensler's talk on "happiness in body and soul" in which she elaborates about writing the vagina monolgues, V-day's conception, the conditions of violence against women she has seen, the women she's met who have transformed their lives and helped other women, and the importance of "giv[ing] in the world what we want the most."