A review of WCPS 2024 Luisa Montalvo’s winning speech
On a stage that receives some of the best dressed men and women, a senior Toastmaster wheels herself in. Using her golden hair for cover, the ventriloquist recreates a scene: a rescuer resurrecting an unresponsive female body at a road accident. Shocking start to a WCPS speech!
After greeting the audience, she says, “That female was me!” Shocker no 2.
She was on a van after dropping 88 homeless dogs, in New Jersy, she says, creating credibility and gaining some legitimate goodwill. Without even a word of thanks, she refers to the 37 strangers – rescue, logistics and medical personnel – who gave her life back. “For 6 minutes my heart stopped breathing. The best sleep ever!”. That allows her ”imagination to run away from me” and she is probably at the gates of heaven, seeking admission. St Peters doesn’t find her name on his ipad. But God, even when busy playing with his dog, recognises her (the dog lover from Mexico, but a poor driver). Leaning over St Peter, he presses the reset button on St peter’s ipad, saying, “Lusia, today is not your day.”
Back from the near-dead, rehab gives her time to ruminate and introspect about the value of human life. Then on the treadmill comes her moment of mental rehabilitation. She is surprised to find a young and fit man. He enthusiastically shares his imminent marriage plans. Then she notices: OMG! He does not have his legs. Shocker, again.
Surprise, surprise
Surprise is Luisa’a strongest suit, right from her entry, then routinely reporting a serious accident and then becoming the central protagonist. Even at the exit, expect a surprise prop!. Most unexpected of all is perhaps floating in the clouds outside the gates of heaven.
Humour
What is humour, if not the unexpected, a surprise that makes you laugh? Lisa has packed her laugh buttons all through out. The Heaven scene has God and St Peter as 21st century humans! It does not further the story except as a parallel, religious take on the efforts of the surgeons, but its one of the most enjoyable parts of the speech.
What makes Luise’s humour different is the flavour of poignance and irony, of a near- dead protagonist jesting about death and all.
Commanding Presence
Even while walking the valley of death, Lusia is in command, starting with her measured thanks to the Contest Chair. Hers is a commanding voice that is convincing, getting the best out of an unusual personal story. Her gestures are more a habit than a planned effort. Many are her pithy lines that cannot be shortened. (Death is so final, My imagination ran away from me…) They heighten her forceful persona.
Moral of the story
To return to the story, inspired by the young man, she is convinced that we have value.
That is where the well-structured, well delivered speech starts to drift. What is the message? What is the speech objective?
“We have value”, she says. That sounds so close to: we have values. No, she is referring to the value of each human life. She brings the title back.
“If 37 strangers came together and put that energy into me, can you imagine what 17,000 of us could accomplish … treating each other with dignity and worth? How awesome it will be if we could all be united like this every day!
Then, getting up, she says, “If you are ready to hit that reset button, if you are looking for that second chance…”
So, what is the message? Respect humans, value them? Grab the second chance? Or, Value lives and save lives in any form?
The 37 strangers didn’t unite and came together as one team, with a shared value statement. They simply did the best that each is trained to do. Their skills and commitment saved a life. In vast contrast, the 17,000 coming together are called upon to treat each other with “dignity and worth”, every day. (Dignity and “self-worth”, perhaps?) They are psychological gratifications, but nothing like a life saved.
Being polite to other Toastmasters (or, in a more generous reading, other humans), is not bad. But the 37 strangers did lot more than that. If they are the heroes to whom the story is dedicated, a call to action to do something lot more useful, valuable, even lifesaving would have been a Thank you they deserve.
Therefore, whatever the take-home, it remains the ultimate surprise.