Where the Idea for This Came From.

Like many other things in my life, it came from Monty Python. John Cleese wrote two books with his therapist. The first was called Families and How to Survive Them, the second, Life and How to Survive It. In the second book, they covered different societies and one of them is the United States (John Cleese now lives in Santa Barbara).

John Cleese made a comment about the Protestant work ethic and how if people did not like a certain hierarchy, they could keep going West and forming their own communities.  Well, we can still go West in our minds.  You can fail in one place and succeed somewhere else.

Is this a utopian community?  No!  People still have their own lives and homes, just sharing certain items and skills.  I can borrow my neighbors rake and loan him my saw.  He can use his more powerful pickup truck with a chain to help me pull my tree stump out.  Like that.  Helping each other out, but not interfering in one anothers day to day living.

Individualism makes the United States great.  Notice I use present tense.  The late great New York Times sports writer Leonard Koppert called baseball “the sum of individual efforts.”  (Yes, baseball always creeps in there somehow).    Why can’t we extend that term to our society?

They felt the good points were the energy we have as Americans and willing to explore.

We have all sorts of creative energy, let’s use it!

Why Baseball is Important.

    I’ve spoken recently about American Football, but baseball for the strategy and its life lessons is my favorite sport.

I thought I had won Best Speaker last night in Toastmasters but did not.  Remember, if it is really competitive it is harder to win and winning is that much sweeter.

In baseball, a start hitter hits .300.  Remember that means he is “failing” seven times out of ten.

You still have to play.  You need your failures to learn.  It makes the winning taste like honey.

I am Running for President.

    This is tongue and cheek.  My friend George Tully and I are known as Numbskull One and Numbskull Two.  Later, I will write about how that all began, but with all the craziness going on, we could always form the Numbskull Party.

Notice I am not saying we can do a better job.  I am asking if we can do any worse than who is out there.  All I can provide you with is a homespun common sense, something that is sometimes not too common.

So vote Numbskull in November.

Toastmasters Speech Contest.

    I had sworn off contests.  I have been in Toastmasters for almost seventeen years and swore off contests (I know, didn’t your Mama teach you NOT to swear)?  Well I was nagged into competing in the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest.

I actually won the Table Topics contest and have to compete at the next level up on Sunday.  The Red Sox are playing the Yankees, and I will be answering a Table Topics Question.  Maybe I can leave quickly and head home (I live only ten minutes from where we meet), so I can see the first pitch.

My Table Topics question was basically coming off the bench and making lemonade from lemons.  Sometimes, you have to do that.

Listen, Don’t Talk!

    This may seem strange coming from someone who talks about public speaking.

I am from a talkative family.  Allow me to share two things I learned the hard way.

1.  You learn more when you listen.

2.  The less you say, and the more you THINK about what you will say, the more people pay attention when you DO say something.

In other words, as with many other things, quality, not quantity.

Why People Need Public Speaking.

    I have worked on a Non Fiction which has been put aside for the moment.

It goes deeper than being a great orator or earning a living as a professional speaker.  What if you need to convince someone of your positions?  What if you are suddenly asked to run your Non Profit group and you need to speak with different people?

Therefore, everyone has something to say that is beneficial to them and the people they are speaking to.