Arc of the Universe
Today's symposium was one of the more powerful ones I've hosted. It's only the second one for the 2019 year, and yet the energy of the conversation was alight with inspiration. On the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, holiday, this quote made itself recounted:
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr., paraphrasing Theodore Parker
There's a lot to go over from today's symposium (and I won't even touch on a large fraction of what we discussed!).
Lorenzo's Story
The powerful imagery of MLK's paraphrasing come from our discussion about one of the attendee's, Lorenzo Peve (https://engineeringyourwell-being.com/) desire to be, as many are wont to do, on a TEDx stage, delivering a speech that will change the world.
I have seen an initial variant of his speech, and he has the start of a steady foundation from which to deliver his message. It's not concrete yet, though (as no speech in its infancy ever is!) and we spent a lot of time talking about some of the more technical aspects of what he could do make improvements.
Aristotle's classic modes of persuasion came into play, as they always do in a good technical talk about public speaking. Without going over a lot in details, here are some of the things the forum talked about:
Credibility (Ethos)
What's the first concern a twenty-two year old has with giving a speech about how to appreciate being mindful of the moment? Age, of course. "Am I credible?" is something we all deal with anytime we step on stage, but the more youthful you are, the less experience you have and the more likely that old, cynical, people will doubt your veracity. And rightfully so. What have you done to prove your worth, after all?
Turns out you have one of the best proofs of credibility out there: You're human.
For Lorenzo, he had an emotionally powerful experience not so long ago that involved love and loss of a nature that would (and should) weigh heavily on any human soul. This is his credibility. Experience is his credibility.
You do not need to have lived a long life to have experienced much that would change your perspective in fundamental ways. Leverage that.
Empathy (Pathos)
Lorenzo's tale did not lack in empathy. The mournful loss of a loved one. The realization that the future means little if the present is not acknowledged and lived within. "I love you" cannot be told to those whom you do not reach out to, now.
Rationale (Logos)
Lorenzo's speech is of such a human type that logic, in the strict sense, does not need to be strictly adhered to. His speech is more strongly aligned with the emotional connection. Rather, in this case, the structure of the speech as a whole provides the basis of apparent logic. As long as the structure is consistent in terms of organization and language, the speech will fulfill the needs of Aristotle's Logos and not throw the audience off. Keep this in mind when preparing a speech. Not all logic is created equal, but all minds will fail to grasp your message if you do not provide the "correct" logic.
Painting the Well Known To be Original Again
We've all binge watched those YouTube and TEDx talks that inspire and enlighten us. We get so much out of that 15 minutes of talk-talk! Or do we?
We live in an age, and in a culture, where "self-development/improvement" and "world changing" is everywhere. Seems more 75% of non-fiction books are in these broad categories. This is fantastic! Except when it is isn't.
When is striving to make personal gains not so amazing? When the author or the speaker your spending your precious time engaged with basically repeats the "same old ideas" that you've already watched/read before. These grandiose ideas of improving oneself and of making the world a better place should not be lightly set aside. But the fundamentals of these topics are two, three thousand (arguably more than ten thousand) years old. In our modern age, it can be an honrorable goal to resurrect what was once known and refresh it for a newer audience. But let's not make it boring.
Lorenzo's speech is on mindfulness of the present and being in the now. Since before the times of Marcus Aurelius and the Buddha, these ideas have been spread. The key to a successful delivery is, ironically enough, to make the the ancient part of the now — and the best way to do that is to make the speech resonate with the present audience. This means being intimate. Personal. Passionate. Authentic. Expressive. Tell the story, but tell your story. Make the audience connect with you by painting your experience onto the message that has been repeated a hundred thousand times for the past two thousand years; and in doing so, you make the old (yet powerful), new (and even more powerful).
The Moral Arc Redux
In the United States, we live in a culture awash with the ideas of self-improvement and that the world can, and should be, made a better place. While we must always temper any overly self-aggrandizing, I'm happy that Lorenzo has the ability and the option to stand up and make yet another speech about what we can do to take the next step towards a better future.
We still have a long way to go; the future will never be perfect the way "we" think we want it to be, but we can always strive each step to be better, for each word to be better.
The arc of the moral universe is long, indeed, but justice does not bend on its own. With each speech that is given to guide, with each story that inspires, with each kind word we give each other, the universe bends towards a justice that is truly worthy of ourselves and our descendents.