‘Absolutely’ is an intensifier. Back on February 23, 2014 I blogged about One-track minds: exactly, absolutely, always. And on June 14, 2024 I posted about how Hedges, qualifiers, and intensifiers are essentially weasel words which can be removed.
There is a Savage Chickens cartoon by Doug Savage on July 6, 2026 titled Absolutely, and shown above slightly colorized. It cautions that enthusiastic use of that word can seem like you mean the opposite – when Hell freezes over.
I have been skimming a 2022 book about storytelling by Mark Yaconelli titled Between the Listening and the Telling: How stories can save us. Google Books has a preview through page 21. There is a 29-second video at Hearth Community on August 2, 2022 titled Storytelling is being human together with this description:
“Storytelling is being human together. We tell stories to savor the pleasure of living. We share stories to help one another remember who we are and what matters. We tell stories to weave our lives together. We tell stories to keep our souls intact when suffering overtakes us. This is story as medicine. This is how story can save us.”
Twelve chapters and three interludes in the book are titled:
A Place the Soul Once Knew
Confession
The Catacombs
Coming-Out Parade
Pure Medicine
Interlude: Clara
The Hearth
Storycatcher
Undocumented Stories
Tragedy
Interlude: Shoes
The Apocalypse
Sacred Stories
Interlude: The Faun
Home
There is an excerpt on June 28, 2022 at Broadleaf Books titled The Healing Power of Stories, taken from page 15 of Chapter 2: Confession. Another excerpt on September 5, 2023 at Thriving in Ministry titled ‘Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us' that comes on page 150 from Chapter 11: Sacred Stories.
And a striking excerpt on page 93 from Chapter 7: Storycatcher says that:
“One night in an Irish pub, over dinner with writer Brian Doyle, I talked about my newly discovered work, drawing stories forth from people and towns and organizations. ‘You’re a seanachie,’ he declared. Seanachie, he explained, is a Gaelic word meaning ‘storycatcher.’ In traditional Irish towns, a storycatcher’s role was to unearth, gather, and share stories to strengthen and bind people to one another.
After Brian’s declaration, I began to claim my vocation as a storycatcher. I learned to ask questions that drew forth memories: A scared place from childhood. A memorable winter. A sacrifice. A missed opportunity. I learned to listen for patterns, for change, for the revealing heat of emotion. I read books by writers, oral historians, and professional storytellers and noted how they went about their craft. Over time I learned the warp and woof of stories, how they gather, arch, spiral, and spring forth. I learned how to root up the deepest stories from people and communities, how to catch their scent, how to ferret them out from the tangle of a person’s living.
I discovered that in every town the stories wait, like seeds beneath the concrete. They wait within the receptionist who sailed alone across the Black Sea, within the store manager who raised his two sisters after their mother died, within the well-dressed grandmother who spent her youth stealing horses in Saskatchewan. Lower me down into a seemingly empty, colorless place – a fast-food restaurant, a warehouse chain store, a gray office cubicle – and I will excavate a story that will break your heart, a true story that will bust your sides with laughter or unlock all that’s bound up in you, a story that will aim you like the North Star toward whatever is true and right. Give me a few hours of your time and I will mirror back a story from your life that will fill you with self-compassion. There’s no need to make anything up, no need for fiction. The truth waits to be told, but few know how to catch it. And fewer still know how to tell it.”
There is a 45-minute interview at Hearth Community on August 9, 2022 titled Anne Lamott Interviews Mark Yaconelli About His Newest Book.
Images of a fireside storyteller and lady catching a ball came from OpenClipArt.
It is important to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. From the Twin Falls Public Library I got a 2020 128-page children’s book with introductions by Tonya Bolden titled Strong Voices: Fifteen American Speeches Worth Knowing. The full text for each speech in this anthology is preceded by a brief biography of the speaker. Those speeches are:
Patrick Henry ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.’ One version of his text.
George Washington ‘Farewell Address.’ Excerpts and text.
Red Jacket ‘We Never Quarrel About Religion.’ Text.
Sojourner Truth “I Am a Woman’s Rights.’ Text.
Abraham Lincoln ‘Gettysburg Address.’ Texts.
Theodore Roosevelt ‘Citizenship in a Republic.’ Text.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ‘The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself.’ Text.
Lou Gehrig ‘Farewell to Baseball.’ Text and video.
Langston Hughes ‘On the Blacklist All Our Lives.’ Audio.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy ‘We Choose to Go to the Moon.’ Text.
Martin Luther King Jr. ‘I Have a Dream.’ Excerpts.
Fannie Lou Hamer ‘I Question America.’ Transcript.
Cesar Chavez ‘Address to the Commonwealth Club of California, 1984.’ Text and audio.
Hillary Rodham Clinton ‘Women’s Rights Are Human Rights.’ Abridged text.
The Duke Cigarettes lithograph of Patrick Henry came from Wikimedia Commons.
There is a Pearls Before Swine cartoon on July 1, 2026 by Stephan Pastis with the following dialogue:
Rat: I’m now a professional life coach, and because you’re my friend I’ve decided to help you for free.
Pig: Oh goodie! How?
Rat: It starts with this chart I’ve drawn up showing the percentage of your life that you act like a real dum dum.
Pig and Rat: looking at chart [see above]
Rat: Do that less.
Pig: Somehow your help never feels like help.
Rat: Shoot. Now it’s 99%.
Sometimes we just run out of speech ideas, or suffer from writer’s block. At that point, we might want to get inspired by looking through a large collection of speeches. At the Internet Archive there is a pdf of a 748-page book titled The World’s Great Speeches, edited by Lewis Copeland. Contents are:
Part I: GREAT SPEECHES OF EARLIER TIMES
I. Greece and Rome
II. The European Continent
III. Great Britain and Ireland
IV. The United States
V. Canada
VI. South America, South Africa, India, and China
Part II: GREAT SPEECHES OF OUR TIMES
VII. American Industry and Government
VIII. International Affairs
IX. The Second World War
X. National Defense
Part III: INFORMAL SPEECHES
XI. Informal Speeches
Part IV: THE UNITED STATES AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR
XII. The United States and the Second World War 12
TOPICAL INDEX
INDEX BY NATIONS
INDEX OF SPEAKERS
I created a cover using an image of fireworks modified from one at OpenClipArt.
There is an article by John Eades at Learnloft on June 25, 2026 titled Why Most Leaders Overestimate Their Presentation Skills which opens by stating a startling ‘statistic’ that:
“Fear is real, and there are a couple of common things people fear.
A survey revealed that people’s two biggest fears are public speaking and death.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld landed a joke about the survey when he said, ‘Most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.’
It’s funny because it’s true. Most people despise the idea of public speaking.”
John did such superficial research that he confused a joke with a 1973 survey where death actually was seventh. Both are shown above. And that misquote is a paraphrase of what Jerry said in 1993. Back on April 8, 2018 I blogged about Misquoting Jerry Seinfeld and inflating fear five times.
He also has a 9-minute YouTube video at The Leadership Lens on June 25, 2026 titled Most Leaders Think They’re Good Presenters. They’re Not. Both the article and video have some useful content:
“The Three Types of Presenters
Since leadership is more art than science, leaders can be introverted or extroverted. They are women and men. They are quiet and loud. However, after watching leaders across industries, most fall into one of three categories when presenting.
The Informer
The Informer knows their content cold. Their slides are detailed, their data is accurate, and their presentation is thorough. However, they confuse information transfer with communication. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it can be boring. The audience might even learn something. Their presentations are forgettable, not because they couldn’t be better or because their content is weak, but nothing makes it stick.
The Rambler
The Rambler has real experience and genuine passion. When it lands, it’s magnetic. But without structure, the audience works too hard to follow. They leave inspired by the energy but unclear on the point. The Rambler’s biggest blind spot is thinking passion is enough. While it’s better than someone who doesn’t care, passion without structure is just noise with enthusiasm.
The Inspirer
The Inspirer knows their content and their audience. They don’t present at people, they present for them. They use story, tension, and intentional moments to connect ideas to emotions. They take chances by using authenticity to show their true self. The audience doesn’t just remember a few of the things they said – they remember how it made them feel.”
David Murray edits the magazine Vital Speeches of the Day and runs the Professional Speechwriters Association. On June 18, 2026 he published his 4,493th post in the Writing Boots blog he had started back in 2008. It is titled Writing Boots: I Can’t Live With It, and I Can’t Live Without It. (I only have 3157 posts or ~70% of his total). I enjoy reading his blog, which he posts at almost every weekday (although Fridays usually are just a linked video).
He says he has used this blog:
"as a chance to sharpen my knives.
to remind myself, on muggy gray Tuesdays between magazine articles and books and other public stunts, that I exist.
to draw crowds by starting fights.
to be a self-righteous prick.
to write gentle poems that you wouldn’t read otherwise.
to make reading my thoughts, your habit.
to get things off by chest.
to settle scores.
to preen.
to figure out what I think.
to force myself to say something, every day.
to make saying something every day easy and natural. (It’s easier to write every day than once a week, a daily columnist and I agree).
To say whatever the fuck I want.
To keep from complaining that I’m not allowed to say whatever the fuck I want."
The writer image was cropped from Wikimedia Commons.
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