Public Ego Crisping

This morning I made a private presentation to the City of Winnipeg government committee concerning protection of homeless people. The problem was it was not very private and I was not prepared.

I was invited to the meeting by one of the Councilors but I did not actually expect to be called to speak. When my name was called, I don’t know what possessed me but I went up there half-expecting to do it and yet not really believing it was happening to me. I knew I was not prepared but went up there anyways with a reckless attitude of “let’s see how this goes”.

A big part of what unnerved me was having three news cameras and the largest radio station place their microphone right next to me as I sat down to speak. I never dreamed there would be so many people present including the media. Life had slowed down to a complete crawl and I so wanted to not be there. I can only think that I did so poorly in communicating my ideas that the news did not bother to report on it thus saving me a more public embarrassment. After all, watching a person stutter and stumble over words is not riveting news.

After I did my presentation and answered a couple of challenging questions from the Committee, I became a little more comfortable as the ideas started to flow. By then, I think it was too late because I as the messenger failed to deliver from the beginning.

It was a good couple of lessons: 1) always be prepared; and 2) don’t cherish your self-image too much because Life will crisp it good every once in a while.

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