Free to Write

The written version of an oral speech is called a transcript. Most oral speech transcripts, however, do not include the snoring sounds coming from the audience, possibly for the simple reason of covering the speaker’s behind.

Yet, who can blame the snoring people who are made to sit and listen to someone drone on and on and on? Life is not being fair to them, is it?

This makes me think of commencement speeches the poor graduates and their folks have to bear with.

As you navigate through the rest of your life, be… this or that…. As if people who were able to go through all those tests and things do not have the brains on their own to choose what to do.

Or I know this is a big day for you… As if the graduates are dumb enough not to know that the speaker knows it is their big day.

Or As you grow, you’ll realize the definition of success changes. How can you as the speaker know that? Are you a prophet or the weather-caster of the evolution of language?

After all those speeches, I sometimes wonder if the speech givers ever think of how silly they sound, should what they say could be put in a transcript, together with the snoring sounds from their audience. Maybe the transcripts should do exactly that, don’t you think?