I Have a Dream

The day is March 10. The time in Japan is 7am. The place is a small coffee shop in the airport………………. My heart a place of reflection and heaviness.

I have just flown from Singapore to Tokyo. I have spent the last several hours reading the great speeches of the last 100 years. I am EXTREMELY MOVED by the WORDS of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I don’t think I have ever read their speeches all the way through in the past. I sat still in my airplane seat…..deaf to the noises around me.

I was deeply moved. Tears came down my cheeks. Fifty years have passed. Things have changed. The world is smaller, but somehow I feel we as a human race have not! The words of both of those men echo in my head. Every day I doubt the power of the spoken word and every day I am amazed at how it can change the course of people’s lives, HOW IT CAN CHANGE the course of history.

Does the ability to change the world truly begin to lie in our words?

My heart, soul and mind SCREAMS to me ……………..YES!

Here is where my frustration comes in……………I belong to an organization dedicated to using our voice to make a difference the world. I question once again what we are really trying to do………………..maybe our goals are not high enough, maybe we underestimate the power of what we do, maybe we doubt what a real difference we can make, maybe that IT is really not our goal! Maybe our goal of making a difference is hidden in just trying to get a booking or make a buck. I realize I cannot question anyone else in their intentions. I can only question my own. What I can do is speak from what I observe………………

If words can change lives, if words can move mountains, if words can change the destiny of cultures and worlds, if words can truly make a difference……………………………..then what are we waiting for???? Can the words of JFK and MLK spoken 50 years ago still be our goal????????????

MLK said, “I have a dream”……………. I too have a dream!

I have a dream that is rooted in the principle of giving.

I have a dream that every man and woman would find their voice.

I have a dream that every man and woman would use their voice to touch one other lives.

I have a dream that every man and woman would “let their life speak.”

I have a dream that all voices would unite in global citizenship.

I have a dream that every man and woman stand hand in hand united in the cause to leave a legacy behind that betters the lives of those WHO will follow …………………..

I have A DREAM that we set aside our speaking VOICE and we let our whole LIFE speak!

I have a dream that the words of JFK are the question we ask ourselves as speakers every day:

“ASK NOT WHAT YOUR WORLD CAN DO FOR YOU……………….ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THE WORLD!”

LET THE WORD GO FORTH FROM THIS MOMENT TO THE WHOLE WORLD THAT THE TORCH OF MAKING A DIFFERNECE HAS BEEN PASSED TO A NEW GENERATION OF SPEAKERS.

Do you dare to carry the torch; do you dare to leave the old behind, do you dare to be remarkable?

I DARE YOU…………………………………..