I barely have time to mentally process the debate–because I spend this entire weekend listening to an eclectic group of authors who fill my brain with their ideas, stories, and experiences–as part of the Authors and Ideas Festival in Carmel, California.
The good news: This event definitely gets my mind off politics. At least while I am actually sitting in the room listening–and not outside ranting about politics with the other people attending the conference.
The bad news: By the end of the weekend I am humbled by being around so much talent. And my brain is stuffed, making it impossible to process all the ideas richocheting around.
I wish everyone could have been a fly on the wall–and heard such remarkable people. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. Greg Mortenson, humanitarian and author of Three Cups of Tea. Michael Pollan, the food guru. Irshad Manji, a courageous and charismatic young Muslim woman dedicated to the reform of Islam. Dr. Fred Luskin, who teaches the benefits of forgiveness. Sylvia Boorstein, a Jewish grandmother who teaches Buddhist meditation. And many more.
Each person contributes something of value–they are informative and innovative and inspiring, and every single speaker stimulates something in me—including a poet—even though I never really understood poetry and haven’t read a poem since high school.
My plan for this blog was to summarize what I learned and give a few snippets of wisdom. But now I realize I can’t even do that. Because Michael Pollan summarizes his entire philosphy on food in seven words: “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Too intimidating to do summaries. So forget that. And as for the wisdom, forget that,too. These authors can do it far better than I could. So I’ll list some of my favorites, and their websites, and let them speak for themselves. (You might notice some links have absolutely nothing to do with authors or ideas. I have no idea how that happened…)
“McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere” by Frank Rich
Barbra Streisand blogs on the Huffington Post
CNN’s Jack Cafferty : Sarah “should scare the hell out of you.”
Thanks to all of the above, my mental capacity and creativity are in high gear for the coming week. And there is absolutely no room left in my brain for anything else tonight. Hopefully some of you will check out some of these authors and ideas. Meanwhile V and I are going to a movie.
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