Lectures

Early one summer evening, Tommy and I took our places in the back seat of Aunt Eleanor's car.  She got into the front seat beside Tubby, a former truck driver wo would have been offended to be called a chauffeur.
    As we pulled away from the cottage, Aunt Eleanor asked Tommy what the subject was for her lecture that night.  I was stunned; twenty minutes away from an hour's lecture and the speaker asks what the subject is.  I remembered winning a public-speaking prize at school and the hours and apprehension that preceded my presentaion.
    Tommy replied, "The psychological effect of the war years on students in our society."
    Eleanor was quiet for a few minutes, then found a scrap of paper in her purse and jotted down a few notes.
    At tee high school, reporters and school officials greeted us.  Two of the reporters then asked my aunt for a copy of her speech.  I suspect they wanted to scan it in the comfort of their homes and write a piece about it at their leisure.  Aunt Eleanor smiled sweetly and informed them that she never wrote out her speaches, so there never could be any copies of them.
    The freshness of her presentation lay in the fact that she derived her inspiration and intesnity from the very people who listened to her, and it only made her feel stilted to have to refer to notes, except as a reminder of a point she particularly wanted to emphasize.  Journalists all over the country eventually learned that in order to get a copy of one of her speeches, they had to hear it themselves.
    Afte ra lecture, she always wanted to know "how it went," and she often relaxed with a cup of tea and talked about it, but apparently it never occure to her that a record of her speech should be kept in an archive.
    No matter what official topic she had been given, she also managed to talk about subjects that interested her.  She would adroitly turn the content towards human rights or the United Nations and peace.  That night she decided to talk about education.  But no matter what the topic, the audience always grew quiet and remained so winthout so much as a cough, until their speaker picked up her wristwatch from the podium and said, "now you must ask me questions."
    That night, a young woman asked a question my aunt had heard many times before.  "Mrs. Roosevelt, what can we, as individuals, do to help our country to promote world peace when there are socialist ad fascist nations out there wating to conquer the world?"
    "It may suprise you," Aun Eleanor replied, "and some of your teachers may disagree with me, but I am sure the more you study communism or socialism, the more tolerant you will feel.  The very best thing would be to travel to such countries and see for yourself.  We are not afraid of a known situation.  It is the unknown we fear."