Words have a magical effect. Sometimes even the simplest word can have a lasting impact. I learnt this lesson while attending a private college specialising in English. From morning till afternoon, we had to use the language in different ways. Apart from writing essays, we had to learn poems by heart and sing songs.
The hardest part was delivering impromptu speeches. One day, I was asked to deliver a speech on a topic I picked up from a box kept in the classroom. The class teacher used to write topics for speeches on small pieces of paper and roll them to hide the words.
When I got up to deliver the speech, I simply froze. My mouth went dry and I found that my legs were shaking a little. Sensing my predicament, the burly principal walked up to me and said, “You can do it!” The four words had a mesmerising effect. I felt like crying with happiness. All of a sudden my stage fright disappeared and I started addressing the audience which consisted of students and teachers. Even today whenever I am faced with a difficult task I tell myself “You can do it!”
Some of us very often realise how much we need encouragement. Almost all of us need to feel needed and admired. Therefore, take the trouble to find something to commend in others and you will discover that both their ability and attitude will improve. There is a truth in the old adage: “Flowers leave part of their fragrance in the hands that bestow them.”
The ultimate cop
Sometimes encouraging words come in the form of a poem. On September 22, 1986, A Chicago, Illinois, policeman was shot during a drug arrest and died subsequently. Shortly afterwards, fellow officer Ken Knapcik, a 20-year veteran of the force, returned home after work to find a poem from his 15-year-old daughter on the dining room table.
At the end of the poem, she had added a note to say that it came directly from her heart. She expressed her love for her father and said she was amazed to find him go out every day and risk everything to keep the family happy. She also said, “Let’s be careful out there.” The poem titled ‘The ultimate cop’ was dedicated to all the cops in the world who had daughters who loved their fathers with all their hearts.
Ken Knapcik stood stiff as he read the poem. After going through the poem several times, he started crying. Then he took the poem to the police station and showed it to his superiors. They too started crying after reading the poem. Knapcik always carried the poem in the pocket of his police jacket. He never left home without it. One day he said, “I’ll probably carry it with me forever.”
After listening to a speaker, the audience gets an opportunity to ask questions. People ask both intelligent and stupid questions. When Pope John XXIII was asked how many people worked at the Vatican, he replied, “About half them.”
A long time ago, an American delegation went to Beijing shortly after China opened up to the West. The Chinese delegation was led by Mao Zedong. The leader of the American delegation posed a question. “Chairman Mao, what would have happened if Nikita Khrushchev had been assassinated in 1963 instead of President John F. Kennedy?” Mao Zedong thought for a moment and said, “I can tell you one thing for sure – Aristotle Onassis would not have married Mrs Khrushchev.”
Dog kit
The late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike came to power after winning a landslide victory in the General Election held in 1956. Although he was an Oxford graduate, he preferred to wear the national dress. One day, he attended a dog show wearing a pair of trousers, coat and tie. A journalist asked him why he was not wearing his usual national dress. He said, “You have to attend a dog show wearing the dog kit!”
If you need to know the power of words, read famous speeches of wartime world leaders. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s short speech was a virtual cry of defiance to the Germans after the British evacuation of Dunkirk. He said, “We shall fight on the beaches … We shall fight in the hills … We shall never surrender.” The speech, broadcast overseas, stirred sympathy for the British cause in millions of Americans. However, it was revealed later that the words were not spoken by Churchill, but were recorded by an actor who specialised in portraying him. When Churchill heard the recording later, he said, “Very nice. He (Norman Shelley) even got my teeth.” When Churchill spoke, air escaping through his teeth produced a faint hissing sound.
While writing a last will, people use some powerful words as if they are throwing one final zing from the grave. Philip, Fifth Earl of Pembroke, left the following words in his last will: “I give to Lieutenant-General Cromwell one of my words, which he must want, seeing that he hath never kept any of his own.”
Henry, Earl of Stafford who had a tiff with his wife wrote in his last will: “To the worst of women, Claude Charlotte de Grammont , unfortunately my wife, I leave five-and-forty brass halfpence, which will buy a pullet for her supper.”
It’s Greek to me
It so happens that you sometimes fail to understand what others tell you. On such occasions, you might say, “It’s Greek to me.” However, a Greek would say, “Stop talking Chinese.” When a Chinese does not understand what another person says, he would say, “Your words are like the Buddha’s attendant, 12 feet tall, whose head I cannot reach.” When a Pole is unable to understand you, he would say, “I’m hearing a sermon in Turkish.” A Frenchman who gets irritated by incomprehensible talk would say, “Stop talking Hebrew.”
At a dinner of the Foreign Ministers, following the American Revolutionary War, the British Ambassador gave this toast: “England – the sun, whose bright beams enlighten and fructify the remotest corners of the earth.”
The French Ambassador followed with: “France – the moon, whose mild, steady and cheering rays are the delight of all nations controlling them in the darkness, and making their dreariness beautiful.” Benjamin Franklin then rose and, with his usual dignity and simplicity, said: “George Washington – the Joshua, who commanded the sun and moon to stand still, and they obeyed him.”
Today, the fusion of wit and wisdom is rarely found in speeches delivered by some of our world leaders and opinion makers. That is one of the tragedies of the 21st century.
