Speech Geek…

A friend recently commented to me, as we sat waiting for a meeting to start… “You know we’re geeks, right ???” I didn’t reply immediately, so he continued, “We are the one percent of the five percent. The five percent is the people who actively care about and follow politics, and the one percent are the geeks, like us, who get involved.”

Well, he was right.

I do like to follow what is going on, and I have to admit, today is a day I have programmed into my Blackberry !!!

The evening of Tuesday, January 25th has been scheduled as “Busy” for quite some time, and I cannot recall (short of a Canucks Playoff game,) when I have so eagerly anticipated an evening’s viewing.

Although I am a Canadian, first and foremost, I am, secondarily, a student of words.  I love a well crafted turn of phrase, and amongst the many selections on my IPod, are speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill.  People who can, with a whisper draw you in, and with a shout raise you up.

I grew up in an era where Politicians had to have substance, and be able to rally their masses with more than a sound byte and talking points.  When people could agree to disagree, but each side would listen to, and consider the other’s argument, before bringing forth a crashing, and hopefully crushing, reply.

Those days are no more.  Sadly, most today cannot accept a candidate who does not fit the mould… For rather than forming the Party around the Leader, it seems more and more that, today, the Leader must conform to the Party… And few are able to speak well, let alone with the eloquence, grace and verbal intensity, that SHOULD be intrinsic and second-nature to someone holding the highest Office.

So it is that I have my PVR set, (in two rooms, just in case…) my schedule cleared, and a reminder set in my Blackberry, (in case the cold medications overpower my conscious thoughts.)

The American State Of The Union Address is this evening, and I shall be watching, and drinking from the vessel of speech crafting… Drawing nourishment from the emphasis and elocution of one of the great speakers of today.

Hoping to become inspired to live and be better, by the words said by a man who is not my Country’s leader, but who is a leader, and whose carefully chosen words will probably stand head and shoulders above anything else our Leaders will say this year.

Those with the gift for delivering a great speech, are themselves a gift, and should be cherished and valued as such.

Tonight, I plan to enjoy this present, and cherish it… For it will have to nourish me through a lot of “sound byte / talking point” speeches that seem to be on auto play, and rarely change, despite the constantly changing faces of the ones giving the speeches.