In at TEDMED, & left out of the Declaration of Independence

Apr 12, 2012

TEDMED rolls on, and I’m still here, and still grateful I got into this large, lavish, learned gathering.

Last night’s delegate party was in the Library of Congress, an inspired, and inspiring, choice. While my friend Karyn Traphagen used her special card to get onto the floor of the reading room, I wandered into an exhibit on the writing of the Declaration of Independence. I was fascinated by the editing — the cross outs and inserts and rewrites — and moved by the thought that the same work I do was done to so much better and longstanding effect by Thomas Jefferson and his compatriots.

My work is writing and editing, certainly, and I love the craft of finetuning a sentence and paragraph and article. But I’ve come to realize, too, that conversations drive me. I got the sense from the exhibit that quite a few conversations helped finesse the Declaration, too. TEDMED is giving me many new individuals to converse with, and I’m looking forward to seeing where these connections go.

Anton Zuiker ☄