The Gift of Speak

Yesterday was both frustrating and fun. I caught a bunch of panels at the Digg Stage - here's a full recap in my BlogHer post. Overall, I was so impressed with the passion and articulation of Those People in society who ... y'know, get shit done. Secretly, I would like to be more like them but I am usually more comfortable in my observer role - just not as good at the gland-handing that is required.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. was, by far, the best speaker of the day. I'd seen him on The Daily Show and was amazed by how impervious he was to Jon Stewart's jokes. He's been harping on the environmental concerns for so long, it seems to justify his hoarse voice. (He's actually got a disease that affects his vocal chords.)

Anyway, I'm posting a photo of him not speaking but clearly burning with intensity. I mean, the dude is SERIOUS.

I was considerably less impressed with the public speaking abilities of Darryl Hannah. She introduced the "Climate Problems and Solutions; Local to Global" panel and for someone who makes a living as an actress, she sucked big time.

She had with her many pages of notes that she did not waver from. Her hair hung in her face and she rarely looked up. She spoke in a monotone and sounded incredibly bored with this topic that she has evidently built her entire life around. Maybe she was nervous?

The worst was when she would pause mid-sentence while she awkwardly moved the pages around, leaving us hanging between "We need to" ...scrambleshufflescrableshuffle ..... "be more aware of BLAHBLAHBLAH."

I'm sitting there thinking, 'Girl, get it together!' Maybe it's my improv training but it was all I could do not to get up there and take over. Sheesh!