Funny What You Can Find By Exploring

I am a member of Toastmasters, an international association dedicated to teaching better speaking and leadership. I participated in in Table Topics this week, as I usually do, . For those unfamiliar, Table Topics is that part of the program where members get to practice their impromptu speaking skills. A topic is chosen and kept secret by the meeting's Table Topics Master. Members are chosen at random for each topic by the Table Topics Master. They then must deliver a one to two minute speech on the topic.

The theme of our Table Topics this week was cartoons. I was chosen for Wyle E. Coyote. For any one not familiar, Wyle E. Coyote kept meeting with horrendously violent self destruction as a result of schemes to catch a roadrunner. I began humoruosly, that I believed Wyle E. Coyote was a suberbly brilliant creature for creating these intricate plans for overcoming his natural speed deficit. Only, that his proplem apparently stemmed from product failure. He kept using "Acme" products, which never performed properly, leading to his continuing disaters. Then came the seque.

I suggested that the coyote didn't understand his power as a consumer, and neither do we as Americans. Just like good ol' Wyle E. Coyote, we keep giving business to companies that do not serve us, are irresponsible, and do not respect us, the environment, or the rules. I made it clear that the same fate as the coyote awaits us if we do not wake up.

Not every Toastmasters group allows rebuttals in Table Topics. Rebuttals are add-ons or a different take on the subject by another member. Ours does. A woman followed me, and tailgaited on my point. Yes. Wyle E. Coyote kept using Acme procucts, and that was not smart. Only, how did he purchase these products in the first place. He had no visible means of support. Yet, Acme kept allowing him credit. She parallelled the fact that this is us also. We have no visible means of support, yet they keep giving us credit. Vis a Vie; the sub-prime debacle, still mounting credit card dept and government deficit spending.

I ended up wining the contest for my presentaion. Much of Toastmasters is contest and performance oriented. Still, these were both valid parallels, drawn in humor and impending doom. I don't think the original creators of Wyle E. coyote thought about these, or were they considerable problems at the time. It's just wonderful what you can find, though, when you bother to turn over a couble of rocks