Latest

Today was an interesting one! I was assigned to speak at Nseleni and I tried something new!

I drafted a talk on my laptop - and then left it in my car - on purpose! I was confident that I could talk with power from my heart and did not have to rely on notes! By all reports the talk went as well as I thought and felt it went. The branch president of Port Durnford branch maintains that I am a powerful speaker.

The topic was well chosen by the District President, in that it was on "Listen to your Church Leaders" This was great since I AM a District Leader. I know that the congregation heard me - and understood - because at appropriate points there were gales of laughter - WITH me and not AT me!

I also commented that I have come a long way since I joined the Church, Back 20 years ago, when I was baptised, in a crowd larger than 2 people (1 of them being me!) I would shrink into the background and be almost invisible! Now I can stand at the pulpit and give an audible talk that has meaning to the congregation. It is really not a problem to address a crowd of anything from 50 to 400 people!

I realised that it has been centuries since the last speaker was savaged by a mob of Mormons! Not bad, since the Church has existed since 1830 or so!

I have been assigned to talk as First Speaker at Sacrament in Richards Bay next Sunday! I have found that I can speak easily for the first 45 minutes and after that, battle with contaminated air in the Bay. I find that I sing well(???) for the first half an hour, and then the air gets to me, and I cannot breathe properly. Lesson #1 - If you cannot breathe, you cannot talk! At the end of a race, the runners cannot talk until they have caught their breath! I speak easier in the Bay after I have used my asthma pump!

Back when I realised that I had been robbed(?) of free speach in the accident of the century, I thought that the trachae that kept me alive in my coma, had been damaged (stretched or partialy paralysed) and that was why (I thought) I could not speak. I was subsequently diagnosed with spastic muscles, and the major one is my diaphram - the muscle that controls your air intake! That was kind of shocking, to realise that medically I am spastic! Growing up, I was led to believe - by ignorant school mates - that "spastic" was some kind of moronic lack of brain power! Now I realise that "spastic" refers to the fact that the brain does not communicate properly with the muscles! My accident affected my motor skills, NOT my mental prowess!

I was tested (re-tested) and apparently the accident knocked a few points off of my IQ. Turns out that it did, but only because I now lack the motor skills to complete the questionaire quickly! Without bragging, I have always been a bright cookie and even if I lost some IQ points, I could obviously have afforded to do so! So what if I went from super-genius to genius! I am still a bright little thing! Since I am officially retired - ill health grounds - it makes no diffrence to me!
Maybe this is what scared my ex - wife off! The one blessing is that I have already hit a physical low point, so anywhere from here, HAS to be upward! I still dont know what my IQ was - or is, but then - who really cares! I was third in a bright class all through my senior years at MY school - the one up the road, instead of across the suburb where I wrote my 'A' Level exams!