It’s false you know. . .

A   PICTURE   IS   NOT   WORTH   A   THOUSAND   WORDS. . .

It’s   E N D L E S S.           .           .

Not a Thousand words. . .

not a Hundred-Thousand Words. . .

not a Ba-Zillion Words

or even an Infinity amount of Words.        .        .

Go ahead.        .        .

look at the picture again.      .      .

or have you NOT stopped looking?

I usually dress like this when I do a Presentation entitled:

DID YOU HEAR WHAT I DIDN’T SAY

My question to my audiences is now my question to Y O U:

HAVE      YOU      EVER      FELT      LIKE      I      LOOK ?

Seriously,

L O O K        V E R Y        C L O S E L Y

at that picture of me again.

Is there anything that matches?

I mean LOOK:

Those glasses are literally the glasses I wore in my Senior Year at High School. They were broken during a basketball practice.

That was way before Duck Tape.      .      .

that’s electrical tape,

because of my dad’s school teacher and coach’s salary there was no Eye Plan.     .     .

wore them my whole Senior Year,

graduation included.

Whoa, Cowboy, it doesn’t stop there, does it.

Check out THAT  vest.

My daughter, Zoey refused that I wear it to one of our Father/Daughter dances,

even though it was a Country-Westhern Theme.     .     .

Imagine that!

The shirt certainly is a one of a kind and those pants.       .       .

THOSE   PANTS–

makes   G Q   keeping my phone ringing 24/7 wanting to replicate them and my ensemble.

The hat?

Well come on, I grew up in Pittsburgh. . .

I’ll always be a Pittsburgh Steeler Fan,

even though I’ve lived in Cleveland, OH since 1987. . . .

Again:  H A V E      Y O U      E V E R      F E L T      L I K E      I      L O O K E D ?

Have you ever heard of these statistics:

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IS ONLY 7% VERBAL AND 93% NON-VERBAL (THE NON-VERBAL IS ACTUALLY 55% BODY LANGUAGE AND 38% TONE OF VOICE)

But wait a second.     .     .

maybe you should even take at least a minute or a couple more for this one.      .      .

These stats were actually never based on giving a presentation or a speech,

but information that could be communicated in a

S      I      N      G      L      E             W      O      R      D !

Maybe. . .Maybe Mark Twain was actually right:

“THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF LIES:

LIES,      DAMNED LIES      AND      STATISTICS.”

DID    YOU    HEAR    WHAT    I    DIDN’T    SAY ?

s o m e t i m e s

W H A T ‘ S    N O T    S A I D,    S H O U T S    T H E    L O U D E S T !

L I S T E N

with more than just your eyes,

or you may never HEAR

what needs to be heard

but never quite

S A I D !

L I S T E N. . .

N     O     T        to       r e p l y

but to actually  h e a r

Did you hear what I didn’t say. . . ?

YOU

hear it more and more:

IT’S    NOT    A    SMALL    WORLD  

 SO    MUCH    AS    JUST    A    BIG    LIVING    ROOM.       .       . 

I do a Keynote presentation where I hand out of Baggie full of objects

that helps us Understand that very thing:

IT’S   NOT   A   SMALL   WORLD   SO   MUCH   AS   JUST   A   BIG   LIVING   ROOM

One of the small objects I place in the baggie is a puzzle piece;

I tell the audience that the we’re often told to

LOOK     AT     THE     BIG     PICTURE

which is really an overwhelming thing to do.         .         .

It   is

P  I  E  C  E      b  y      P  I  E  C  E

 that our lives are literally put together and

T  A  K  E       S  H  A  P  E
R  E  C  E  I  V  E       M  E  A  N  I  N  G

I give the audience a puzzle piece to remind them just how important

 I  S

T    H    E         M   O   M   E   N   T

I give the audience a puzzle piece to remind them just how

WE       ALL       FIT       TOGETHER.

Mother Theresa once said,

“IF    I    LOOK    AT    THE    MASS,    I    WILL    NEVER    ACT.”

If she thought about just how many suffering victims there were in the World, it would have been emotionally paralyzing and prevented from actually providing help.

I don’t have to help every poor, hungry, down-on-their-luck-no-one-gives-a-damn-about-me-person in the World.        .        .

JUST   THE   ONE   IN   FRONT   OF   ME
JUST    THE    ONE    BEHIND    ME
JUST     THE     ONE     BESIDE     ME

J   U   S   T        T   H   E        O   N   E !

We really do have the World in our Hands.        .        .

It’s not so big

T H A T      W A Y,

is  it?

Very  manageable;

I don’t know the 12 Mystical Ways to Open your Soul

I don’t know the 21 Magical Ways to open your Heart

I      do      know      that     when

I    LISTEN    WITH    MORE    THAN    MY    EARS  

I    RESPOND    AND    NOT    SO    MUCH    REACT

I    REPLENISH    MY    SOUL    TO    REFILL    ANOTHER’S

I    REMEMBER    THE    WHOLE    PERSON

I    SUFFER    WHAT    OTHER’S    HAVE    SUFFERED

I    GIVE    MYSELF    A     PASS    FOR    BEING    TOO    HUMAN

I   know

that my Puzzle Piece becomes a little bit more important

I know

that the World becomes a little bit more smaller in my Hands.       .       .

More, uhhhh,

H           A            N            D            A            B            L            E

for    me
for    you
for    us
A      L      L