New People

Now I wonder.

Yesterday I spent my first time in the school garden with the young people of the school. I thought this will be fairly straightforward. I will meet them and we will decide what has to be done.

The children stormed out of the building and I found myself surrounded by children. Almost immediately one of them said to me, " You have a very scary voice why is it like that?"

This is one of the reasons that I am never very keen on such things as Facetime of Skype especially with people I do not know well. It is also a reason I text and email more than I would ever call a person. I had to explain to all the children that I used to be a minister and this involved a lot of public speaking and preaching and often without the aid of a microphone. That I also sang a lot. That now I had no working vocal chords and had found a way to speak to them without using such and this was why it sounded so gravely and a bit scary.

One young lad looked at me very seriously and said, " What a shame old man." I laughed and said to them all, "Right I am Ralph I am here to help you learn about gardening and to turn this school garden into a place we can all enjoy. You can call me Ralph, or Mr Taylor or as my own students used to call me Mr T. But we will have less of the old man."

They all laughed and we got around to business. Before long I was just one of them being bombarded with, "Can I do or Why do we do this."

Things I had just replanted seemed to magic themselves out of the soil and the newly cleared bed was a sandpit.

Such is the life of putting yourself in the firing line. 

This voice is a great handicap and has become something of an Achilles heel to me. But I do not think it will be in the school garden again.

I remember when I was told I would never speak again and was determined that would not be so. I learned a great many jokes tales about voices determined to tell them.

Now might just be such a time to share one.

A man with a very bad stuttering voice wanted to purchase a budgie and he wanted it to be a blue one.

On entering the pet shop, he met a man who had a very strange way of talking almost as if he was talking from the back of his voice and through his nose.  

The man with the stutter with great difficulty to the other that he wanted a blue budgie. The shopkeeper told him they were all in the back shop. On getting there the man with difficulty pointed out the male and female blue ones. The customer struggled to make a few comments but then asked if any of them could speak.

A voice from the birdcage came out loud and clear, "I can and a lot better than you two."

I am aware in most circles this is not PC but remember I am the one with the voice problem who sounds a bit like Rod Stewart with a Scottish twang. I am surely allowed to tell a tale against myself.

Have a wonderful day and remember there is never any expert who always get s it always correct. I speak, not as well as others and I have all the time to think how I am going to say things so have become more of a thinker. Let nobody say to you , "you will never manage this."

Have a great day.