FIGHTING FEAR

There’s a tired old saying out there. Those who can—do, while those who can’t—teach! And though this saying is normally muttered and mouthed behind hands, normally offered as an insult to teachers, there is so much more to it than that.

Take Lawrence for example. He’s an unlikely instructor of public speakers, being one among the majority of Canadians who are afraid of public speaking. In fact, I’m betting that he would rather eat his carpenter’s tools—saw blades first--than get up in front of an audience to deliver a message. So I wonder why he is the very best person to turn to when a scary event is coming up and I need courage

He has one public speaking specialty. He is particularly effective at giving hope talks—in the kitchen, when we two are alone and he is arranging chicken cutlets on a baking sheet.

“What am I going to say?” I’ll ask, my mouth dry, heart thumping with stage fright.

“It’s easy,” he says, using a tone that would fool a stranger into thinking he does this all the time. “You can never go wrong with the truth.”

Then he sighs. It’s a deep sigh, a thoughtful sigh, the great suffering sigh of one who is called upon time after time to give, and give, and give. Slowly he turns his back on the chicken, takes a deep breath, puffs out his chest and begins the eloquently measured delivery of a proclamation. “Hope,” he booms in a voice a preacher would envy, “is something we all need. It gets us through the tough times. It keeps us going. But hope,” he continues, after sharpening the senses with a pregnant pause, “is very hard to find, which is why you people out there can’t find it, and neither,” he pauses for effect, “can I! Thank you.”

Turning on his heel, he makes a grand exit through the stage door, pivots, steps back in for a final bow. There’s noise. Is that a jet flying over, or is it the undeniable roar of thunderous applause from an audience that thinks it has been told something of utmost importance by a renowned expert?

Then he goes back to the chicken because he is starving. “You can probably do better than that,” he says confidently, leaving me to go out there and prove that he is right.