Dan Pallotta has accomplished enormous things for the well being of society. As an entrepreneur and humanitarian activist, he knows how to turn big dreams of a better future into reality while, at the same time, connecting human hearts. In fact, the mantra of his company that created the multi-day AIDS Rides and the Breast Cancer Walks was:
Human.Kind.
Be both.
Within that spirit, Dan Pallotta’s powerful and compelling February 2016 TED talk (see below) is not a “call to action” for a future we hope for, but instead a “call to being” for right here, right now. He shines the light brightly on the fact that, as a society, we have become very comfortable with the idea of setting audacious goals to do big things, yet we are uncomfortable with the idea of living into the fullness of who we can be. He challenges us to be as “audacious” in our visions and dreams for who we can become, as we are in our dreams for what we can create and accomplish.
In his words, “I’m talking about what Jonas Salk called an ‘Epoch Be’—a new epoch in which we become as excited and curious and scientific about the development of our humanity as we are about the development of our technology. In 2016, it is the dimension of our being itself that cries out for its fair share of our imagination.”
Dan Pallotta issues a clarion call for our times:
What we fear most is that we will be denied
the opportunity to fulfill our true potential –
that we are born to dream, and we might die
without ever having had the chance.
Imagine living in a world where we simply recognize
that deep, existential fear in one another,
and love one another boldly because we know that
to be human is to live with that fear.
I’m talking about an audacious authenticity
that allows us to cry with one another –
a heroic humility that allows us to
remove our masks and be real.
It is our inability to be with one another –
our fear of crying with one another –
that gives rise to many of the problems
we are frantically trying to solve in the first place.
Visions and dreams of accomplishing big things are important. Yet Dan Pallotto calls us to dream in multiple dimensions simultaneously – to dream about what we can do and who we can be at the same time. This is the dreaming that can create a world that works.
Enjoy the video.
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