“Wrestle with the question”

0:04

Do you remember that great plan; that grand scheme that you had where you were going to build something amazing and as soon as you started here he come; that hater that obstacle; and if your reason for being there had been smaller than that obstacle you may have stopped before you even began.

0:32

We all know those famous examples. When Michael Jordan was cut from his 10^th grade basketball team. When Tom Brady was not selected until the 199th pick in the NFL draft. When Martin Luther King was the worst speaker in the room in a course on public speaking or . . Oh you don’t know that one do you? Mr contest master, fellow toastmasters and guests; King began his graduate studies at the ripe old age of 19 at the Crozer Theological Seminary in the beautiful idyllic setting of Westchester Pennsylvania. First year first course – a year-long course on public speaking so the transcript shows two letter grades for that course. The first grade we see C+. Surely King would have thought “You got to be kidding me.” He had won public speaking competitions like this one across the country long before reaching the seminary.

1:46

So he sits down with the instructor and has a meeting of the minds to set things right and we see the final grade at the end of the year – – – C. For 60 years or so historians have been wrestling with the question how is it that a man who was arguably the greatest public speaker of the 20th century is getting the lowest grades in the room in a course on public speaking.

2:18

Fortunately, we have some comments left behind by the instructors. I’m reading from my invisible copy here a paper from a historian named Carson Claybornne who quotes the instructors directly:

“King has an attitude of aloofness disdain and possible snobbishness which prevents him from coming to close grips with the rank and file of ordinary people as well as a smuggness that refuses to adapt itself to the demands of ministering effectively to the average negro congregation.”

2:58

The first think King set out to do as an adult and here is the obstacle and if his reason for being there had been smaller than that obstacle that may well have been the end of his story.

3:09

But let us wrestle with these issues within our own time within the context of Toastmasters. Yes Toast Masters will help you increase your economic value.. But wrestle with the question. Did you come here to chase a few dollars more or were you meant to be here because you are meant to be the one who speaks on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.

3:39

Yes, Toastmasters will help you move to that next job the next position the next political office but wrestle with the question did you come here for the sake of the next line on the resume or were you divinely assigned to be here because you are designed to be of service to something greater.

4:04

Yes, Toastmasters will help you become more interesting more charismatic more articulate perhaps even more attractive but wrestle with the question. Are you here tonight for the Aggrandizement of this or could it be that your fate your destiny your ancestors your universe placed you here perhaps because as King put it the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice and it demands a vocal manifestation of an idea whose time has come.

4:44

Yes the hater is coming. Yes the obstacle is rising. No it’s not going to be fair a fair is a place where they judge pigs and blueberry pies. It comes around about once a year and I don’t have that kind of time; but I keep trying and you keep building because we both understand that this is not about my money or your position or our ego it is about the one who cannot speak for himself that we were put here to represent.

5:28

It is about the ideal that is under attack that we were built to support it is about the common humanity that must be spoken for at all times at all cost.

5:44

This is a competition but I got something to say. Baby girl the respect of our children the peace of mind we seek in our old age dare I say even our place in paradise if there is such a thing is being bought and paid for by what we do here and by what we build for the sake and the support of those among us who are broken.

6:19

And that is why we grow; and that is why we learn and that is why we speak to them in a way to give them hope regardless of the odds because in the marrow of your bone and the depth of your soul you know full well that this was not ultimately about only you. It’s about the mission that you were put here to fulfill.

6:52

Mr. Contest Master – come get me off this stage man

6:55

[Applause]