I was late here yesterday because I spent the morning up in Boynton Beach speaking to the local Hadassah group at the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club. I used to do quite a bit of public speaking - when I was at the newspaper - and I'd forgotten how much fun it is.
It's even more pleasurable now, as it gets me out of the house (the house being more boring than the newsroom ever was). I love talking about travel and - like most people - myself. I spoke about themed travel, and told of my trip to Sicily to write about the anti-Mafia organization Addiopizzo.
But I also enjoy hearing bits of life histories from audience members. One woman asked if I had ever been to Budapest, her hometown. Afterwards, a woman came up and told me that she had been born in Berlin, and that a number of years ago the city had invited her back to visit. One woman told of traveling around the world with her son, the highlight of which had been Japan, because her son had lived there with a family. His Japanese mother dressed his biological mother in a kimono.
On my way out I talked to a woman who said she wasn't traveling these days. Her husband just died three months ago, she said. She herself had survived three types of cancer: breast, ovarian and colon. I would never have known; she looked wonderful, her short gray hair in a stylish cut. I felt honored that she had come to hear me.
