During her talk, Williams was asked what motivates her to make such a difference in people’s lives. Her answer was simple. She said she could try to forget about the awful things that were happening around her, or she could take action. She says, “It’s like eating Quaker Oats, it’s just the right thing to do.”
As far as Archbishop Desmond Tutu is concerned, I could sit here and write for days about all he has done. Bishop Tutu is a peace activist from South Africa who was elected as the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work towards solving the problem of apartheid in South Africa. Tutu is also known for coining the term “rainbow nation,” which is a term that describes post-1994 South Africa when apartheid rule officially ended after South Africa’s first fully-democratic election. President Nelson Mandela used this phrase in his first month of office. "Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country… a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Nation)
At the conference, Tutu was asked the question, “What does it take to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner?” His answer, “You have to have a big nose, an easy name, and sexy legs.” When he was able to stop giggling at himself he went on to answer a bit more seriously. “When God grabs you by the scruff of your neck – you’ve had it. To take action, you have to know where you stand. You have to have a vision and then you have to commit to a result.”
Sounds easy enough, right? Ghandi said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” You don’t have to go out and do something in the hopes of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in order to make a difference. Just start with yourself. Maybe the best thing you can do at this moment is a tiny shift in attitude and eventually who knows what ripple effect that tiny shift in attitude can have on the people around you and so on.
Later on in the week Desmond Tutu said something else that stuck with me. He said, “We have to keep dancing in the face of insurmountable odds. We must refuse to succumb to the world of death and despondence and negativity. All we need is energy, idealism, and the capacity to dream.” We are all amazing individuals, we all have gifts and talents. No one is just here by accident. It’s time to take responsibility for what goes on around us and put our talents and gifts to work. Just by starting with ourselves, we can make big changes in the world by actually being those changes that we want to see.
Another group at the conference that made a lasting impression was the panel of filmmakers the conference brought in to talk about their production experiences. The panel consisted of six filmmakers, including Will Arntz representing the What the BLEEP!? crew. Each gave their testimonials on how and why they did all they did to make some pretty touching and brilliant movies.
One of the filmmakers, Jane Walters, was at the conference representing a film called Bali: Hope in Paradise, winner for Best International Documentary at the 2004 New York Independent Film & Video Festival. Next > 1 2 3 4
