STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Alex Weber set a world record by video chatting with his best friend 24 hours a day 14 days straight as the chat was live streamed around the world.
A star lacrosse player, he was named Lacrosse Coach of the Year after leading a Los Angeles high school lacrosse team to a championship in his first year as coach.
He’s a motivational comedian and award winning host for NBC, Discovery and FX. And he progressed from accomplishing the simplest of maneuvers to performing acrobatic aerials on American Ninja Warrior.
So, you could believe Alex Weber when he got up on the stage of the Sun Valley Opera House during last week’s third annual TEDxSunValley and pronounced, “Life is awesome all the time.”
Then, he added this: “Says no one,” as he set the stage for his talk, “Victory from Tragedy: Creating Joy from Pain.”
Weber has an innate curiosity about humans. It’s something that has prompted him to go around the country giving out free compliments to strangers as a way to explore connecting with people.
And it’s something that prompted him to begin noticing some common threads running through tragedies like Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Katrina.
Just how, for instance, did the New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl after Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,245 people? he asked. And how was it that the Houston Astros won the World Series after Hurricane Harvey flooded so much of Houston? he added.
“How is it from overwhelming pain can we create something awesome?” he asked in his talk titled “Victory from Tragedy: Creating Joy from Pain.”
To prove these weren’t flukes Weber went on to cite similar cases.
The New York Yankees, for instance, won the American League pennant in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, which reduced the World Trade Center to rubble. And the Boston Red Sox won the World Series after the two brothers set off homemade pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon that year, killing three and injuring several hundred others.
“Why is this happening in these moments when it would be easy to bail?” he said.
After 9-11, Weber said, New York Yankee center fielder Bernie Williams said it didn’t make sense to play again. But, he added, as the players realized others were counting on them, “we delivered our best.”
Similarly, Houston Astros players spent the day before the World Series assisting hurricane victims.
You don’t need to be a sports star to lift others up following a tragedy, Weber said.
“Sports are an outlet,” he said. “Find your outlet.”
Weber encouraged those in the audience to pour themselves into creating healing among friends and community consumed with pain.
“I ask you: Who’s counting on you?” he asked. “We can create joy from pain for us and for those we care about.”