"You have to give a Speech"

      . . . "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears . . ."
           Mark Anthony
      . . . "Four score and Seven years ago . . ."
           A. Lincoln
      . . . "Give me Liberty or give me Death . . ."
                 Patrick Henry


         "Just the idea of having to speak in front of a crowd fills me with unbearable anxiety," my client said.  He is a graduate of a venerable university, has a Master's Degree even.  But to imagine having to speak to more than a half  dozen persons reduces him to a blathering mass of monosyllabic grunts.  Another client, an accomplished IT executive, recently told me that he had joined a local Toastmasters group in order to overcome his near-terror of public speaking.

       What makes public speaking such a frightful prospect for them and countless others?  One estimate claims that perhaps as many as 75% of people have the fear.  It even has a formal name: Glossophobia, from Greek words for 'speech' and 'fear'.  The comedian Jerry Seinfeld reportedly said that at a funeral, a majority of the attendees would prefer to be in the casket rather than delivering the eulogy.   As already noted, the tipping point is not formal education; nor is it a matter simply of Introversion/Extroversion.  (I can attest to that truth.  As a 'card carrying Myers-Briggs introvert', I have never been particularly traumatized by speaking to crowds.  A certain degree of anxiety is to be expected but not of paralyzing  proportions.)

      While perhaps begging the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, I wonder if  a contributing factor may just be lack of experience, perhaps beginning in the early years.  According to Wikipedia, "gaining experience in public speaking often results in it becoming easier for the person."

      Keeping our collective fingers crossed, we are anticipating the imminent arrival of Spring here.  Letting free association have its sway, I remembered the first line of a   
'Recitation' I memorized in the third grade as part of our school's annual ' Recitation Contest':  "My mamma says I've got Spring Fever."  Whatever profundities followed that introduction are long-forgotten.  As I progressed through the grades, there were other memorized 'Declamations', as they were called, including the above referenced Patrick Henry fiery oration.  On a couple of occasions I made it to the 'Final Four' , or whatever the High School competition was called. On my initial attempt, my friend Phil Tillerson won the medal, outscoring my rendition of a speech by Sen. Karl Mundt.  When I was a Sophomore, on the 'Big Night', a thunderstorm hit, knocking out all electric lighting in the school auditorium.  'But the show must go on', and I won First Place with a not so stirring rendition of Mr. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

     Our family moved to a new town prior to my Junior year and this school had a long tradition of 'The Horton Contest', named for a once prominent citizen who had served as the State's Lieutenant Governor.  My classmate, Bill Griffin, gave a stirring oration about horrendous highway fatality statistics.  While this occurred approximately sixty years ago, I remember that intermittently he intoned 'but this is
 normal ! '.

     I wonder how many college and university curricula today require a course in "Speech", as it was called at my undergraduate institution.  Class size was limited to approximately 25 students each of whom was  required
to make 3 or 4 speeches of varying lengths during the semester.  About the only thing I now recall from that class is the often repeated admonition: "The moving object attracts the eye."

     To my knowledge, the Horton Contest, required Public Speaking courses and other comparable endeavors are relics in the educational past.  There are exceptions;  for example, our local high school drama group produces two or three excellent productions annually.  And, sometimes a student's "nervousness" may cause muffed lines.  But, stage fright still is not quite the same as an individual alone in the spotlight.  

     But the 'picture' would be incomplete if I omitted those for whom the 'gift of gab' comes easily.  When my friend Bob was taking a Homiletics (Preaching) course at Duke Divinity School, the Professor dryly noted his verbosity with the observation, "Bob, you say Nothing well."  Alas, that could apply to the utterances of many . . . politicians, preachers, or pundits of all stripes . . . for whom addressing an audience brings no fear.

    How would it  be for you, then, if someone told you that "You have to give a Speech" ?

    Satchel