Thursday, November 17, 2005

cocoa

There is a story about a little boy who had never spoken. His parents took him to a variety of specialists, but nothing helped; the boy remained completely silent for thirteen years. Then suddenly one morning, sitting at breakfast with his parents, he said, "The cocoa's cold." "What?!" cried his astonished mother. "I said the cocoa's cold," the boy replied. His parents were themselves speechless for a moment. Then the father asked, "Why, after all these years of silence, do you now suddenly say, 'The cocoa's cold'"? "Because," the boy said, "everything was all right until now."

This was the beginning of a talk I did in Seattle about poverty in a nation (our nation) of plenty. It was for the National Students Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness Conference.
Here is a PDF of the whole talk. I would be interested in your reactions or advice on how to improve on it.

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