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Preparation
Extemporaneous Speeches
“President Nixon once told me that while talking to Winston Churchill’s son, he told him how much he admired the prime minister’s great ability at giving “extemporaneous” speeches. Churchill’s son replied, “Oh, yes. I’ve watched my father work for hours preparing those extemporaneous speeches.”
How To Talk So People Will Listen, Steve Brown, Baker, 1993, p. 124
North Pole Expedition
Intelligent people can sometimes be unbelievably foolish. Consider the 19th-century explorers of the Franklin Expedition who tried to reach the North Pole, Annie Dilllard, in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk, describes the provisions they took for that hazardous journey:
“Each sailing vessel carried an auxiliary steam engine and a 12-day supply of coal for the entire projected 2- or 3-year voyage. Instead of additional coal…each ship made room for a 1,200-volume library, a hand-organ playing 50 tunes, china place settings for officers and men, cut-glass wine goblets, and sterling silver flatware. The expedition carried no special clothing for the Arctic, only the uniforms of Her Majesty’s Navy.”
Imagine heading into frigid wastelands with supplies like that! What utter folly!
Our Daily Bread, February 6, 1998
Flat Tire
One morning went out to start car to go to church. Flat tire. Lucky I had a spare. Changed tire quickly and on way. Didn’t think to drop spare off to be fixed. “I’ll get around to it.” Within five days went out to car to go to school. Another flat. Only this time no spare! Had to roll it to nearest station and wait while it was fixed. When something breaks, fix it now. Don’t wait until you need it and then don’t have it!
J.U., August, 1982
Preparation for Masterpiece
Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist’s home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting.
Our Daily Bread, May 18
Martyr John Huss
We are told that when John Huss was arrested and informed that he would be burned to death for his faith, he purposely practiced holding his hand over fire to prepare for his final test. He burned himself in preparation. He wanted to be faithful to the end.
Moody Monthly, April, 1990, p. 76
The Painting
Nat Wyeth, engineer and inventor, on his brother, artist Andrew Wyeth: Andy did a picture of Lafayette’s quarters near Chadds Ford, Pa., with a sycamore tree behind the building. When I first saw the painting, he wasn’t finished with it. He showed me a lot of drawings of the trunk and the sycamore’s gnarled roots, and I said, “Where’s all that in the picture?” “It’s not in the picture, Nat,” he said. “For me to get what I want in the part of the tree that’s showing, I’ve got to know thoroughly how it is anchored in back of the house.”
I find that remarkable. He could draw the tree above the house with such authenticity because he knew exactly how the thing was in the ground.
Kenneth A. Brown, Inventors at Work
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