Tuesday, December 3, 2013

December 3, 2013 Theme: Consumerism

Kathy was our Toastmaster today. She gave us a little history of consumerism which was our theme.  Consumerism started in 1800s with mass production. Mass production promoted mass consumption which was the start of consumerism.

Sophia was our first speaker today.  She gave her icebreaker titled: Mother Daughter Relationship.  Sophia spoke of her early childhood being raised by her grandparents. Then when she started grade school she lived with her parents.  Though she worked hard and earned good grades she was not able to please her mother. Hence she didn't feel close to her mother. When Sophia married and had children of her own she looked forward to being close to them. She noticed her son did not have her same work ethic. She realized she became her mother when her son asked her why she was so negative. She then understood that her mother had loved her all along, but simply wanted the best for her. Just as importantly she learned that neither she nor her children had to be perfect to be accepted.

Karen was our second speaker. She completed presentation seven from the CL manual. The title of her talk was A New Light on Chronic Pain. Karen tied this presentation into her last talk on living well with chronic pain. Karen dug deeper into new developments in chronic pain and how they can help millions of people reclaim their lives. Karen's partner Maureen gave an enthusiastic introduction to Karen's speech. Research shows that chronic pain is connected with the central nervous system. Basically pain is a tool that tells you your body needs healing. Once it is healed pain goes away. However with chronic pain the the central nervous system needs to be retrained so it stops when the healing is done. Support groups, workshops and workbooks teach tools for retraining the central nervous system so people can live well with chronic pain.

Both speakers were so informative. We were so glad Maureen was a guest today. We hope you will join us next week.  Pictures will be posted at a later date.

4 comments:

  1. Sophia and Karen both advanced in their speaking skills. I felt enriched because they both taught me new things.
    I loved Ash's mystery table topics and hope she uses them again.
    Kathy performed her role as Toastmaster with fun and skill.

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  2. Kate, you always do such a good summary of the meeting. I enjoyed both the speeches and learned alot from the meeting. Our theme was very timely.

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  3. I am glad to give my first speech and thank you all for the support!

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