I have volunteered for the first of these 'brown-bag lunch presentations' and am not shy to admit (at least, to myself and Jeremy) that I did so simply to get it out of the way. I have little desire to participate in team-building exercises in the context of an organization that exists solely to facilitate one-on-one interactions in a professional context.
I have decided, as it is occupying my mind of late[^kaypresentation], to talk about discernment and the reasons that I am where I am now and not wearing vestments. I already even have the example of my client who is going through his own form of secular discernment.
To that end, I have been toying with the balance of life story to academic content, and have decided to lean perhaps 80% of my presentation on individual stories (both mine and that of a few anonymized clients), and then set that within the framework of psychology.
The core idea of what I want to share, I think, is the importance of taking one's time to make decisions, as well as to understand the unavoidable malleability of those decisions and long-term plans. The things that decide the outcome of long-term decisions may, after all, be long-term problems. You may, for instance, be a stupendously awkward coyote trying to wedge himself into a position of social grace that requires absolute earnestness and humility.
* The client who is struggling with his choice of what he is majoring in at university.
* My parents' decision to marry (and thus dating as a whole).
* Having my dreams interrupted by a sudden recognition of reality.
I think that this is enough to get across the point of taking a long-term decision-making process into account in a therapeutic context[^hendiatris]. I don't have to give an academic lecture or provide any references, of course, just offer some thoughts from what has come up in and before my own practice.
On further consideration, despite my thoughts on the context of this presentation, I think it might actually be fun to write the essay that will underlie my speech. It ought not be all that different from what I am doing here, after all, right? I am providing myself with a forum in which to voice my ideas, explore them to their conclusions, and learn something along the way.
I emailed Jeremy my thoughts on the matter, since he works for the same organization that I do and will doubtless have to give his own brown-bag presentation at some point, and this was his response:
> Dee,
>
> Yeah, that sounds like a fantastic idea. I was about to caution you about the difference in tone between a speech and a journal entry, but given what you have shown me so far of your work, I don't think that that's necessarily a worry for you. I think I've told you "you think in complete sentences" or some variation on that enough times at this point that it has become almost a cliche ☺
>
> One thing that I think I would suggest is that you write this 'journal essay' ASAP so that you have enough time to get your thoughts out of the way. You've mentioned before how easy it is to get caught up in your own thoughts on something while they evolve in the middle of you trying to share them. Write your presentation, then maybe journal about it some, get all the thoughts out of the way that you can so that you're not distracting yourself at the front of the room.
No harm in that, I think. I'll get those words down and maybe even spend the night before rehearsing them, just to be safe, and then try and make it as fun as possible for myself, and hopefully that will come across to the audience, as well. Might as well try to turn corporate bullshit into something useful for those who have to put up with it.
