Food was on the brain of our toastmaster Mark on his first night in the role. He wanted to know what would each participant would choose for their last meal as a means of introduction, with answers ranging from lasagne to vine leaves. Topicsmaster Sharon had other things on her mind, with a query about childhood games eliciting a story from another first timer, Bob, about digging up light bulbs in the garden in the false belief he would win a light saber to enhance his Star Wars role plays.
Ahmed chose the rabbit over the hare on the topic ‘slow and steady wins the race’ – a load of nonsense! High achievers don’t stop until they reach the top or drop dead trying. Fiona took a different view, her typically thoughtful response asked if there was something missing in our definition of success. Madeline pointed out that health and safety on construction sites involves good food as well as high vis jackets, while Muna concluded that in fact fortune tellers don’t work, even those supposedly solving crimes in superstitious African villages.
Claire was in favour of fake tan over the pale Irish skin; I’m afraid I had to get up and disagree and I repeat my call for action here – Irish women, you don’t have to be orange and brown to attend weddings! Your hated pale skin is more beautiful than you think. Dan G and Jean Marie decided they did like surprises as long as they were nice ones, it’s a bit tricky if you get that one wrong!
An interesting series of contributions on the key to happiness included a query on whether happiness existed (Maria), the Catholic emphasis on suffering in this life being rewarded with everlasting happiness in the next (Fiona again), meeting a man with very little who was the picture of contentment (Rosie) and a suggestion that happiness lies in small things (Jill) – such as the local coffee shop drawing a heart into her morning coffee!
Dave brought the house down with his best topic winning attempt to sell the room two products, a plastic frog (hereafter known as Frankie) and a small jar – of bubble mix which he didn’t realise until afterwards – managing to involve LSD while mistaking paella for peyote and not advocating drug use! Once a salesman always a salesman..
Our speechmaking for the evening got off to a strong start with Tony’s distillation of a major study on children’s attachment to their mothers and how this can be reflected in adult relationships. All those Irish men living at home beware!
Colette described a fascinating and little known period of white slavery in Ireland’s history, starting with an attack on the town of Baltimore by pirates in the 17th century. Irish and other European slaves were taken to the Barbary coast of north Africa and lost to history, the notable exception being the man who may have brought the claddagh design back to Ireland. What a great topic for the research project Colette!
Fiona F’s speech was entitled ‘The Passion and its Hits and Misses’ – it was only when I reflected today on her speech that I really caught the double meaning there. She talked to us about our own passion – are we passionate about passion? – and The Passion of Christ and its theme of suffering. As always she managed to include a huge range of ideas and directions for thought in her 5-7 minutes, from the analogy of tennis playing in relating to others and the trinity of suffering, belief and love involved in passion of all kinds.
Paul then stood up and made a sign. And another one. We soon caught on that he was trying something different with a speech entitled ‘Speaking without Talking’. Non-verbal communication in all its forms was on the agenda, from the different dialects of sign language (Americans can understand the French but not the English!) to the range of signals used in rescues on land and sea, on aircraft carriers and as part of SWAT team raids. We’ve all seen numerous movies demonstrating some of these – particularly ‘The Elvis’ when launching figher planes from aircraft carriers!) and will all be trying to bag a lift on a rescue helicopter by signalling a Y on top of the Dublin mountains during the Vox hike! Are we more likely to get rescued if dressed as the Village People?
As a club Vox Populi is all about having a go and improving at the different kinds of public speaking and leadership roles we take on. Nora reminded us of this in her general evaluation of the evening as did Maria with her report on our use of language. As we get towards the end of the 2012/2013 year Vox has had a record number of new members and the club has earned a prize for this so we must be doing something right! A big pat on the back to Vox Populi Inc and all who sail in her.
Merrilyn Campbell VPPR