partsofspeaking

Since the title of the blog is Parts of Speaking, and since I originally started it with the mission of discussing communication topics, I am going to post through the next month on the subject of public speaking, using my curriculum in the class I teach.  Each day will be a short observation. Today, the starting place: Communication always involves a content and relationship dimension.  This is a highly important concept and one that budding public speakers often forget.  The process of communication (and it is a process, not an event) involves content (ideas, information, facts), but that is not all.  Public speakers often think that’s all that is going on, but that’s only a part.  There is also always a relationship dimension; in other words, there are statements or implications being made about power, liking, connection, trust, and status.  In rhetorical studies, we call that angle “ethos” or “credibility,” which we will talk about more later. ...

The Academy Awards don't usually interest me, for a number of reasons.  If a movie is good, it's good.  I don't need someone else's validation.  But this year I am in the unique position of having seen six of the ten nominees for best picture.  Today I saw The Social Network at what we affectionately call the $2.00 movie (it's three now).  I guess it's the second run-almost to DVD theater, where there are often lines across the screen.  That's where I usually go because I'm cheap and don't want to pay $10.00.  The Social Network was much better than I expected, and should probably get best screenplay because of the superb way the script is put together and the fantastic dialogue (very Sorkinesque).  The first scene is about as spot on as it could be.  But the movie was a downer, if for no other reason (and there were lots of reasons it was a downer) than that the future leaders of our country who go to Harvard are portrayed as a bunch of ...

Last night I watched the first half of one of the best movies, by many accounts, Being There .  For film students, it's a must-see.  I had watched it before not knowing how great it was supposed to be but concluding that it was at the end.  (I get up very early to go to work and just couldn't stay up for the whole movie last night, sadly).  I see it more a parody of media than anything else, but that's a topic for debate.  Anyway, the most discussed scene is the last one, where the main character walks on water. The movie is too complex for me to go into an adequate description now.  That would take me more time than I have and more effort than I want to expend.  From what I read, there are a few basic theories about what the last scene means.  One of them, of course, is that the film is a satire about Christ.  The foibles and successes of the main character (whom the film-goer knows the truth about but of course no one--save ...

Continuing my discussion of this topic, I am asserting more that Jesus was a model teacher, not the model teacher, since being the model teacher was not the primary goal of His visit to earth.  That doesn't negate that we can learn from His teaching methods. All his teaching was in a relational context.  He used both parables and true stories, even the local news. He used object lessons, often, perhaps overwhelmingly, using money. He is confrontational.  If someone is wrong, He says so.  This goes against current teaching, where every answer has merit whether it does or not; today, every answer has merit simply because someone said it! He commands, without apology.  This one is not for us.  We don't get that option. He takes people's core beliefs and is not afraid to show the shallowness of those beliefs. However, he also takes people's core beliefs and takes them deeper; he digs to find the why of them. He uses dialogue but not in a Platoni...

The following are some more musings about the teaching style of Jesus as recorded in the canon. 1.  He used a mixture of teaching methods, not all the same and not all the same contexts.  In the class I am taking the instructor, who is the Christian Education Director on the pastoral staff, talks about formal and informal teaching.  I like that.  Definitely what Jesus did, and we are doing it, too, even if we don't notice that.  Realizing you are teaching informally is not an excuse to be full of yourself about it, but to be humbled. 2.  Jesus accepts the people who wanted to be accepted, and He didn't so much reject the others as  let them make the decision.  No force.  But still, Jesus loved them and had compassion on them even when they rejected Him.  The rich young ruler is an example.   I can learn so much from this.  The people who "self-reject" may do so because of their own sin and bad attitude, but I can still love...

This question came up to me at a teacher training session at the church I attend.  (Note:  our church staff provides a "school of discipleship" for those who want to go deeper in a more academic way.  I really appreciate it and have taken four classes so far.  Good model.)  I got to thinking about this, and here are some musings: Jesus was perfect and He was a teacher.  However, that doesn't mean He sets Himself up as the Perfect Teacher.  Am I being irreverent?  Jesus was here to accomplish several tasks, but being a model as a teacher (in every way) may not have been one of them.  I think the question may be raised by people who want to think of Jesus as a great teacher rather than as second person of trinity and savior; that is not an option we have, as CS Lewis has so bluntly proclaimed. Was Jesus even an effective teacher?  And if He was, was it in the way He taught (His methodologies) or for some other reason?  Does Scr...

Let me start by saying I live with a paradox.   I hate boxing.   It is an awful, brutal sport.   Everything about it is depressing and demeaning, and I think crooked and corrupt.   The other side of the paradox is that boxing movies fascinate me.   Are there any bad ones?   I recently watched two, Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Setup .   I have not ever seen the one considered the best, Raging Bull (I tried, but the domestic violence in it was upsetting, and I will be the first to admit that there are some movies I just can’t watch because of violence, extreme sexuality, and blasphemy), and there are a few others I have missed.   But the two recently watched ones, along with Cinderella Man , and Rocky (the fighting in that one is a bit cartoonish), and Million-Dollar Baby are great drama. Why does boxing draw filmmakers to make such good movies?   I think it has to do with the sport’s logistics....

I had heard of Henri Nouwen several years ago, actually read about him in Christianity Today.   A friend encouraged me to read his work, and I recently picked up The Road to Daybreak at McKay’s Book in Chattanooga (a great place for booklovers to visit).   Nouwen is shaking my world.   The short version:   Nouwen, a Catholic, was a scholar and academic.   In the mid-‘80s he chose to leave that world and enter service for the disabled at a L’Arche community in France.   Now that is what he does—takes care of a severely disabled man, believing that is his true call for following Jesus; this after a life of fame at Harvard and Yale.   So I ask myself—could I walk away from anything that makes me seem important in my eyes and others and go into an obscurity of service for the sake of the Jesus and the gospel?   That has to be the ultimate question.   Many have done it; some we know about, mostly because o...

As I have said before, I don’t like to recommend movie because they are so much a matter of taste and so expensive, but it would be worth the money and time to see The King’s Speech .   You will learn, you will be inspired, you will be very moved.   It is about overcoming   the constraints of one’s situation, one’s fears, and one’s disabilities; it is about duty over self; it is about the power of friendship over class distinctions and everything else.  

When is someone going to take an AK-47 to Mayhem?   Would that take care of him? I like the girl on the Progressive Insurance commercials.   I don’t like Progressive insurance. Why are Southerners such wimps about snow? We have people in our neighborhood who didn't shovel their sidewalks or driveways after six days. Line from Meet me in St. Louis , by Marjorie Main (I love her):   “She’s having trouble with her husband, him being a man and all.” People went to movies in the '20-50s to see beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes in beautiful settings doing not always so beautiful things.   Hulu has some great stuff to watch.    I watched The Razor’s Edge last night. Anybody who says gender behavior is not biological is crazy.   No one has to tell a little boy to act like a little boy.   My sweet compliant son still loved guns and to stand in front of Star Wars movies with his fake light saber; he ev...