Can I Live??

This TED talk is by the author Isabel Allende. She is recounting her feelings about aging, and what it means to live life fully, every day. Allende emphasizes that it is critical to say “yes to life” and to “stay in love” (Allende). In the beginning of the Talk, she starts off by questioning how we know that we are aging, and then she begins telling the audience of what she has lost and gained in the past decade. After a funny video of a child mediating, Allende then begins describing that internally, she feels desirable, but because she is 71 years old, society does not see her true feelings. She also brings in examples of other older women who feel as she does. Finally, she tells the audience of how she lives her life enthusiastically and passionately, despite being an older person.

In order to emphasize her feelings, Allende mostly uses pathos. When she lists off that she has lost “people…places, and the boundless energy of [her] youth” in the past decade, she ends by stating that she is “beginning to lost independence, and that scares [her]” (Allende). Many individuals in the audience can relate to this because losing people, whether it is by ending relationships or someone passing away, is inevitable in life. Losing a place (whether it is tangible like a home, or in tangible like one’s status in society) is also relatable because as humans, we are always striving to achieve a higher goal. With this ambition, it is certain that we could achieve and be in a better place, or we could lose and end up in a low, negative place. Losing youthfulness is also inevitable as we age and become more dependent on others. This use of pathos allows for the audience to relate deeply with Allende’s loss of people, places, and energy because loss is inevitable as humans age.

One thing that I enjoyed most about watching this TED talk was Allende’s emphasis on living life passionately. I have always been a strong believer in the phrase “live life to the fullest extent,” and Allende’s want to live passionately is very similar to the phrase. To me, this phrase means that every day, you should live your life fully because you never know when you are going to die. I try to live my live fully, but I do not think that I have been succeeding. Instead of living a full life without any care for other’s opinion, I conform to society’s standards. In order to live life passionately and fully, you should not have to conform.