Page 29 - August 2020 Voices
P. 29
ALONG THE FLEXIBILITY FREEWAY
B. Lee Coyne, ATMS
In the current pandemic, the face of America
has been changed. Everyday routine that we used
to take for granted has taken a different form.
These changes lend themselves to a potential
Toastmasters speech that reflects our flexibility
bird heaven–and a building full of and resiliency. Each of us had something within
crumb-tossing humans and no predators. ourselves to offer.
At the start of a 12-year prison sentence, Here are some prospects to ponder.
their freedom gave me hope and an idea. A • Remote workplace. How did our shift
human settlement on a world that is actually to home base influence our actual job
a prison–but not for them. functions? Does the absence of peers
This became the idea behind my first during coffee break find yet another way
book (unpublished)—entirely written while to unwind?
doing time.” • Shopping for goods. Has the need to
distance oneself altered our consumer
Here is the writing-related exercise this habits? Do we buy any novel article as a
month: Share 100 words (or so) about the result of the pandemic?
persona of your ideal reader (and include • Remote learning. Have our children
your pitch, hook, or blurb from your writing). taken smoothly to moving from their old
From those submitted to me at lupusgnome@ classroom to the computer screen? In what
hotmail.com I will choose the one I think way is homework impacted?
most appealing to our readers and publish • Travel planning. How has the covid-19
the winning entry here. I must receive era made for changes to our vacation
submissions no later than midnight PDT destination? Where do we now travel locally
September 8, 2020. Now, go define your ideal that opens new horizons?
reader and tell me all about it! • Inner psyche. What have we noticed about
Ken and his wife Joanne live in the Pacific ourselves in our own ability to shift gears
Northwest, near two of his four children. He as new circumstances crop up?
loves to read, write, play both kinds of golf (ball • Have we acquired new coping skills that
and disc) and design board games. He joined make us a better person overall?
Toastmasters in 2011. He is currently a member • Change entails reflection for all of us.
of TV Toastmasters and hosts his own segment Toastmasters offers that unique forum for
called The Write Stuff. He is serving the District us to re-educate our peers and ourselves.
as the 2020-21 Club Extension Chair. He has Lee has served as a social worker and stress
earned his PM1. therapist since 1975. He has been past winner of the
Toastmasters International Top Ten Bulletin Contest.
VOICES! | AUGUST 2020 29
