Catching Idle Butterflies

SPEECH!

A couple of entries ago, I described how I have trouble debating. Some of you commented how giving speeches makes you nervous, at least.

That surprised me. I never before made the connection between arguing and speaking in front of groups, however large or small. It does make sense, though.

The first speech I gave was during speech class in 10th grade (I know, giving speeches in speech class? What kind of teacher would do such a thing?). We could pick any subject we wanted, as long as we had at least one visual aid. I chose to speak on the solar system, describing all the planets and their orbits. I even used a small poster taken from a National Geographic magazine as my visual aid.

Lucky me, I was the first one to go up. The moment I began, I was so nervous my top lip began to twitch. This was no simple, ordinary twitch, but a spasm that curled into a snarl, much like how Billy Idol used to sneer into the camera. (I had spiky blonde hair at the time, so I looked even more like him then!) I tried to stop the spasm by pushing down on it with my hand, but it was so strong and stubborn, it caused my already shaky fingers to bounce with it.

Mortified, I glanced into the crowd, but only three people were paying attention: the teacher and two of my friends. The rest were too busy finishing their own speeches before they had to endure this torture.

After I sat down and my heart sank down into its proper position along with my lip, I realized I had no reason to be that nervous. I had only performed in front of three people, not 20. Plus, no other student who came after me seemed less nervous. The only difference was they didn’t have any easily detectable muscle spasms.

I told my mom what happened that night and she said, “I’ve never had any trouble giving speeches. In fact, I enjoyed it.”

I asked her how.

“Because I’m not the one up on that stage. My speech is.”

An interesting point of view. I tried to think of my subsequent speeches that way, and it did help. My lip tried to jump around the next time, but after biting down on it for a second, it settled down. Still, I hated being up there and my hands never did stop shaking.

After that class, I never had to give another speech until I was invited to speak in front of the junior high school students in three smaller towns in the area.

But I’ll save that for tomorrow’s entry, because I don’t have the time to write it now. I’m at work, so time to get busy with that! Weee!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here’s a great quote attached to an email as a signature I received this morning:

“[True faith in God] is intimacy rather than ecstasy; it is seeing rather than speaking; it is loving rather than living; it is dancing rather than believing; it is silence rather than sentences; it is worship rather than wordship; it is playing rather than praying; it is yearning rather than conviction; it is faith characterized more by passion than belief.

--Mike Yaconelli