Page 46 - January 2019 Voices

FROM THE FIELD

Confessions of a Chicken Little

Paul Fanning, DTM

I must confess. Confession (or so we are told) is good for the soul. Yet it is one of the hardest things anyone
can do—admit they made a mistake or went the wrong direction. You see “It” had been eating away at me
for months, this reality that I created for myself. And the worst part of it all? I managed to get others to

agree with my assessment, my error, my shame. What is this deep, dark secret you ask? Keep reading fellow
Toastmasters. and I’ll tell you the tale.

It began on that fateful morning of September 18, march with my broadside of doom, brimstone

2017 when the announcement that the Pathways and fire soon to be raining down upon us.
program was rolling out for our region and of Yes, it was I, the denouncer of programs.
course our district. I read the email and was Mr. Negative and Bah-Humbug Scrooge-like,
immediately horrified. What have they done to cold and stone hearted “it’ll never be successful”

my Toastmasters? How could they? THE SKY IS harbinger of the end times. I relished my new
FALLING! Thus, like Chicken Little of the moral role as doomsayer, and I was being patient to
fable, I grabbed my placard and began marching publicize my “I told you so” to all that would
around proclaiming the doom and gloom that listen.

was sure to happen at any moment. THE SKY
WAS FALLING!
I was smug in my proclamation. I felt justified
as others, too, were convinced that someone had

“bumped their head” and “this was the end of
Toastmasters”. Yes, I confess—confess that I felt a
little gleeful when a club declared they wouldn’t
make the change or enroll new members in

Pathways. The end was near when a Toastmaster
I knew well quit in disgust. My pronouncement
was spot-on. THE SKY HAD FALLEN!
Precipitously I began to look around me. What

was this? A whole club embracing the dreaded
“new” program? Pshaw. Coincidence. Then
another rushed to get their members enrolled?
Clearly hysteria! I believed as I continued to

46 ONE COMMUNITY