Award-winning Morning

I was interviewed this morning by a TV station.

The reporter or cameraman (I think he was both) asked me how I felt about giving a speech at the event where I would accept an award from AARP Wisconsin.

He had the camera rolling when I answered about how I felt about giving a speech. This seemed interesting, like, should I claim to be nervous when I was actually doing what I said I was nervous about? The cameraman was nice, though, very late middle-aged tweedy, like he might have regarded me as an older sister. Or an aunt. Probably an aunt. Great aunt.

Anyway, I told him that the thing with speeches is that you think about it for days and then when the time comes you just speak from the heart, and it all turns out okay. People are so forgiving if you speak extemporaneously. If they see you flipping pages of a speech, their resentment builds until their impatience with your talking overpowers any goodwill they might have had at the start. That’s hard to learn since we all want the protection of words on a page. It is better to wing it though, if you have any gumption at all.

I have gumption. I haven’t always had it but I have it in spades as I age. It’s a weird benefit. I am less afraid of almost everything although getting a flat tire still strikes fear. I can’t change a tire. I can’t get the bolts off. But I know who to call.

So, in my speech, I told stories. It is always the stories that resonate with people. But to tell a story that hits a nerve, you have to expose your own raw nerve, your own vulnerability.

When you’re with people you trust, you can do that. So, that’s what my morning was like. Trusting and talking. And getting an award. And amazingly, being on the news.