Ted Tuesday – Be kind… it may be coming for you!

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. This week’s talk was selected by CN&CO intern Josie Dougall. Here’s why she chose it:

I watch a LOT of Altzheimers and Dementia videos and read all the latest articles.

I have spent the past 10 years watching Altzheimers disease slowly, meticulously, and cruelly destroy my mum. She is now bound to a wheelchair, has 24 hour care in a specialist nursing home. She cant eat, walk, dress, sleep, go to the bathroom without a nurse. She cant think. She cant remember. She cant celebrate. She doesn’t know that she has grandchildren.

Within the next 15 years it is estimated that 70 million people in the world will suffer from some sort of Dementia or Altzheimers disease. I think thats one in five of us post the age of 50… not great odds.

This is the first video I have watched that gives a completely new perspective on how to prepare for what may be the inevitable. But in a weirdly positive way.

My mum still loves, and smiles and thinks Grace my daughter is “gorgeous”. But she just doesn’t know who Grace is. The nurses who look after mum just adore her. She is the favourite, and I can see by the way they give her extra care, talk to her, give her the best seat in the lounge, interact with her. My mum has always loved people passionately. Be it the teller at Spar, or my friends at school, or the gardener on the farm where we grew up, everyone felt the Mem Holley magic and I grew up seeing how it affected people so positively. She is intrinsically kind, always has been, and this video describes why that is something we should all work on in preparation for any eventuality.

If I am sitting in a nursing home one day. I really want the nurses to love me too.

I loved this little six minute talk and identified with it enormously. Although a very crappy topic, this is a surprisingly optimistic view of it. Enjoy!