Talk It Up!

I like talk shows. I don’t know why, but I do. I am pretty selective in what I like to watch though. Mostly, I just watch Ellen Degeneres’s show. She makes me happy. Proud to be human and makes me care. The best bit is I’m not the only one.

So, today I was watching a particular interview she did on her show with Captain Dave Anderson (one my mum recorded for me to watch because it was an amazing story) who saved a whale tangled in a large fishing net. Here’s the interview (in two parts):

Although the story itself is full of wonderful things – a dedicated and good man and team, a happy ending, emotion, facts – what I reacted to the most was the fact that I suddenly cared more than I had a few moments previously. That their only major motivation was to spread the word about these nets and the damage they are doing. Because it is the first step, and possibly the most important.

I knew that these fishing nets were bad for the environment and I wasn’t happy. I didn’t do anything about it though. I wasn’t aware however to what extent these nets were hurting our marine life, or how big these nets were, or that 308 000 dolphins and whales dying per year. An average of 1,000 a day.

I like that Ellen said we could do what we want with this information. She gave up eating fish. She didn’t encourage we do it, just shared her own reaction and how she felt. That has more power that telling us anything. While this can be treated as strategic (I’m including a video of a great scene from my all-time favourite non-animated television show in which one of the main characters explains the power of suggestion towards the human mind because I find it fascinating), Ellen is too kind-hearted, straight-forward and genuine to do anything more than say how she feels. I love that honesty; in fact I strive for it in everything I do.

So I’m following Ellen and Captain Anderson’s advice. I’m spreading the word. I’m posting a comment on Facebook and my normal Twitter account. And now I’m blogging the videos. It really can be that simple.

If you don't believe me than I suggest reading some of the comments after the part II Ellen interview with Captain Anderson. It speaks for itself.

Here is the video about the power of suggestion and the way the human brain works. I couldn't find a video that plays just the one scene, so you have a collection of scenes from the one episode.

To make life easier, the scene you want is from 4.05 -4.35 (which is obviously minutes and seconds but I won't take anything for granted).

If you do want to watch the entire video, please do! It's such a great show; my favourite as I said. It's called Leverage by the way, forgot to mention that.

4.05-4.35

Also, because my love for Ellen knows no bounds, and because this is such a 'pause and rewind' story, I'm going to put this interview up. It's about a 14-year-old girl who bought a house. Yeah, you read that right.