Life Lessons From Wikipedia
I recently discovered a Ted Talk that featured a spoken word artist named Rives. He spoke of a game from his childhood called the Encyclopedia Game. In the modern world, it has become the Wikipedia game, and the game is fairly simple.
1. Choose a word to look up on Wikipedia.
2. Read the article until you come across something you didn’t know
3. Look up that word or fact on Wikipedia, and the game cycle continues.
Rives seemed to think that this was easy and that everything would come back around to the first word if you looked hard enough. A skeptic at heart, I thought ‘There is NO way that this works.’ I decided to try it.
I started with the word ‘Love.’ I scrolled through the article and discovered that a psychologist named Robert Sternberg had formulated a ‘triangular theory of love with three different components: intimacy, commitment and passion. I didn’t have a clue who Robert Sternberg was, so I continued my search.
Robert Sternberg also proposed a triarchic theory of intelligence. His theory claimed that people who are more creative have a better ability to adapt and shape their environments. What defines creativity, you ask? I wondered the same.
On the wikipedia page for ‘Creative,’ it stated that most ancient cultures didn’t believe in the concept of creativity; they saw the creative impulse as a moment of discovery. They didn’t believe in the idea, and therefore didn’t have a word for ‘to create’ or ‘creator.’ The only word that came close was ‘poiein,’ which only applied to poetry and poets. I couldn’t help but wonder when everything was going to come full circle, though I debated it ever would. I was a writer on a goose chase, but I continued all the same.
Though I am a poet at heart, I had no way of knowing that on the Wikipedia page for poet, it would tell me that there was never an ancient word in any language for ‘poetess.’ There was a Wiki link to poetess. ‘What is it this time?!’ I thought.
‘The Poetess’ is not only the word for a female poet, but the name of an American rapper and radio personality born as Felicia Morris. She named her first album “Love Hurts” and used Robert Sternberg’s theory of love to create the album.
Wait. WHAT? There was no way. It had to be coincidence. I was determined to prove this damned Ted Talker wrong.
Next Wiki search: Bullying. The bullying article talked about the suicide of Phoebe Prince in 2010. I’d never heard of her. Apparently, there are a lot of things I’d never heard of.
Phoebe Nora Mary Prince was born in Bedford, England on November 24th 1994. No connections yet.
Just outside Bedford, there is an airship hangar named the Cardington Airship Hangars. Little did I know, those Airship Hangars doubled as filming space for movies like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight was written by David S Goyer.
Goyer went to a Hebrew school when he was growing up because kids would beat him up and bully him for being Jewish when he went to regular, public schools.
So there was no connection! I was right…..wait. David Goyer was bullied? DAMN IT.
‘One last time,’ I thought. Twice is just luck. Your move, Wikipedia. Overcome with a sense to win this damned game and prove Rives wrong, I came up with the most random word I could think of: Sunflower.
There is a sun flower called the ‘Jerusalem Artichoke.
The ‘artichoke’ part of the name was coined by Samuel de Champlain, a french explorer. de Champlain was a participant in the exploration and settlement of Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
This was getting random. I’d won! I kept reading.
In 1710, Port Royal was renamed ‘Annapolis Royal’ in honor of Queen Anne of Great Britain.
Under the Wiki article for Queen Anne, a blue link taunted me. It read “click here for ‘Queen Anne Lace and Sunflower.’
You’ve got to be kidding me. I clicked the link, and found the painting “Queen Anne’s Lace and Sunflower” on Amazon.com for $120.
No. Nope. Not real. Alright, if this game was right, and what I found was true, then something was going on here. I don’t believe in coincidences. There HAD to be a lesson here, so I dug a little deeper.
The Queen Anne painting sold for $120 on Amazon. Otherwise, 12 times 10 and 12 is the month of December, which just happens to be the month that Robert Sternberg was born; the same month that Samuel de Champlain died on December 25th, which we all know is Christmas Day. Christmas, that Christian holiday that David S Goyer was bullied on because he was Jewish. The 25th, or 25, the same number of millions grossed when “The Dark Knight,” written by David Goyer, was filmed at Cardinston Airship Hangars, right outside Bedford, England, where Phoebe Prince was born on November 24th, 1994, the same day that The Poetess Felicia Morris became a radio sensation.
Rives had been right. I may not believe in higher powers, but I believe that Wikipedia and history are onto something.
We are all connected. Things will always come full circle. If they haven’t yet, then search a little deeper for a little while longer, and things will start to come together. The connections may not always make sense, and we don’t always know what we’re looking for.
That’s the best part, isn’t it?
To watch the full Ted Talk, follow this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L6l-FiV4xo