Day One-hundred-and-forty-three: Speaking again

Late last night in the fog, I spent an extra amount of time in the sky chair. As it was in the forties, I needed to dress warmly but it was really quite pleasant. Even the noticeable and frequent jet engine sounds were not a problem. I did miss the animal antics and sounds but any time and every time out there seems relaxing.

Just before my late night outdoor experience, I had talked with the founder of Telesto Medtech, the person who supplied Marilyn's quite effective lymphedema garment. He was telling me that he was supplying a set of garments for a person's feet who heard about this possibility from the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund and may be getting support from the fund. I know that his garments work. It is so great that Marilyn is having such a beneficial impact well beyond her life. I couldn't ask for a better memorial. If this is the only accomplishment in my life, particularly my Life after Layoff, it is all worth it.

Today I called and canceled my land line. I've already unplugged the three charging stations and disconnected the base station from the jack. Now I will need to remember where all I have signed up for things using that number, like Staples, or simply remember the number. I will need to tell Toastmasters at tonight's meeting. Other than Toastmasters and my children, most of the calls were nuisance calls, including yet another survey yesterday. (I thought they were all done with the election being over.)

Tonight's my speech night at Toastmasters. Rather than stay up later tonight posting it, I decided I would once again post it early, already getting double duty out of it. At my normal reading speed it is just a shade too short. So I will have to make sure I speak slowly and distinctly. Here it is:

I had planned on taking my recently received Toastmaster packet with me on my six-week road trip and mapping out all of my remaining nine speeches. Then this opportunity occurred. I was at a loss. What would I speak on?

Fortunately, last Friday, as I was doing the crossword puzzle, no longer simply because I like doing them but because they are supposed to help fight Alzheimer’s, it hit me. Right there was my topic: 29 Down: “Firm belief,” and the answer was “FAITH.”

My brain went from zero to 60 in nothing flat. From nothing to speak on, I now had too much, even without research. I don’t know which is worse. I’ve decided to speak to the framework that I’ve created for future research, and perhaps other speech topics. [You might say this speech has been edited for time and sensibility, well maybe not sensibility.]

Let me be very clear. This speech is not about religion although most religions are all about belief. My framework is simply a way for me to think about belief. To this end, I now “believe” that belief is manifested in four different ways, which may be levels of increasing belief. After introducing my names for them, I will further define each one. My names are:

• Belief in Faith Facts,
• Trust, or belief in others,
• Internal manifestation of belief, and
• External manifestation of belief.

Belief in “Faith Facts” has to be the most common. I see it as simply the unquestioning acceptance of assumptions, premises, or tenets as if they were fact. Even the acceptance of scientific results without an understanding of the science involved is a matter of belief and thus a “Faith Fact” for the believer.

In such an interdependent world “Trust” should also be common. But I attribute most of this interdependency to a form of “Faith Facts,” if a belief at all and not despondency. We “believe” labels until we know them to be untrue. How many people buy pet food they now know originated in China? Unfortunately, our trust in others is undermined from childhood as we are taught to be fearful of strangers. I myself have teased my youngest daughter about being gullible. Now I realize that doing so just undermines her trust in me. It is something special for someone to have that level of trust. More, it is a fundamental wrong in our society when our first reactions have to be suspicious to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of.
[In a related aside: It was coincidence, but just after I selected this topic I happened to be walking by a bakery. The bread smelled so good, I had to go in. I read the ingredients listed on a loaf of whole wheat bread and was glad to see that it was egg and dairy free. But then I asked. It turned out that it did contain dairy. I don’t know whether my trust was improved by the clerk’s honesty or my belief in labels was undermined.]

When I think of “internally manifested” belief, I think of mind over body. According to recent news reports, some doctors are giving out placebos as much 70% of the time. In fact, the belief that a sugar pill can cure is so powerful that it has a name, the placebo effect. I believe that it goes both ways. Could not the poor results for some drugs that have proven effective in rats and other lab studies be due to the belief that the drug won’t work?

What is left is the category I’ve labeled as “external manifestation” but may be more correctly named “beyond belief.” If internal is mind over body, then external is mind over environment, where the results are a noticeable change for which the only explanation is belief. I'm not sure into which category visible healing should fall. There is a quite common saying that cynics have for this category, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” With all the movie special effects, even that may no longer make it believable.

I’ve briefly defined each of the stages or categories in my characterization of belief: Faith Facts, Trust, Internal and External.

In closing, I want to leave you with this thought:

Can belief be developed, grown from little or nothing? (In asking this question, I’m excluding a religious conversion experience.) As a natural cynic who should have been born in Missouri, I certainly hope so. I’m working on trust now.