TED @Aspen, Day 4 - another great set of sessions

I'm once again exhausted from a very long day of sessions, a late dinner, and hours of work in my room, so I'll once again give the conference far less than it deserves.

So many people made so many great presentations today that I could rave about nearly all of them. We got to see Amy Tam talk about her creative process, Richard Preston discuss the redwoods and their amazing ecosystems, comedy jugglers perform here in Aspen, Chris Abani break our hearts with stories of his suffering in Nigeria, and so very much more.

I think I'll restrict my discussion to the last talk, when Ben Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, took the stage and wouldn't let it go for what must have been nearly 45 minutes. When he did stop, no one wanted him to leave. A coach, a performer, a musician, and a talented educator, he helped redefine the relationships of many people, myself included (though only a bit), with classical music. He led us to understand the soul in a short Chopin piece. He handed out and displayed the lyrics to Ode to Joy in phonetic German and got everyone in all TED locations to sing over and over, each time extolling us to abandon ourselves more to the music, until it was a very joyful noise indeed. His energy and passion won the hearts of everyone there.

Dinner was at a restaurant at the top of a mountain, a beautiful location we reached via a gondola ride that ascended 3,200 feet vertically (via a run of about three miles, one person said). Despite my fear of heights, I was not afraid, and I quite enjoyed the ride and the meal.

I could go on and on, but if I don't sleep soon, I will keep clinging to this flu, and I must get better. Besides, I have two more long TED sessions in the morning!

I wish every one of my friends could be here with me to enjoy this conference. TED makes me want to be a better, more creative person.