Being your own authority is enough to allow anyone to listen to you. You might often have gleaned over the question as to how to make others be attentive when you possess no expert knowledge nor the trait of an experienced orator. However in this day and age, where the common man's voice is affiliated with experience of familiarity with life's mundane aspects, of which many remain ignorant, therein holds the key to mastering this discipline.
Thinking around corners, consider a simple maid. From sunup to sundown she hustles long hours for minimal pay and at night, after numerous hours and going through perchance, many houses, cleans away the human debris and refuse we leave behind. From scrubbing the toilets and washing our filthy clothes, and in some cases even cooking she then retires to a tiny one room apartment completely on the other side of town after spending hours in commute. She's arthritic and getting on with age and once home, lies on the floor exhausted, remembering those yesterdays when her children would keep her company. After all the heartache and labour, she whimpers alone in her discomfort. There's no psychiatrist to aid her temperance here as its far too costly.
The time has now come for her to look for another well-paying job and she is conscious of the way she looks. Not only are her shoes worn out but she's wearing a loose-fitting dress that's lost colour with time and is now full of moth holes with her hair wrapped tightly in a bun. A complete opposite to the woman from whom she seeks employment. After having been extensively quizzed about what she can cook and numerous other qualifications that would label her worthy of this job, she is shy because she knows she doesn't speak the language fluently. The lady of the house discusses her as if she wasn't in the room with other members of the household. She sneaks glances at the other women as they talk noticing their clean, beautifully styled clothes adjourned with jewellery looking far more respectable than she ever could ever afford to look herself.
Yet who knows more about the human condition than she? The sorrow, the loneliness, the poverty and hard hours. From amongst them who is the most courageous? When she is after all allowed to speak, there's a softness detected in her voice and the women must listen closely with intent. However, the words she does utter come from the heart because she knows no better way to explain to them that she can hold the job up to par with their expectations. And indeed, the women of the house will listen and respect her because they're well aware she speaks from an authority of practice, a thing which they do not possess.
Sagacity doesn't have to come from high places. The mighty and the successful have taught me but little when compared to the people who have struggled through life trying desperately to make their ends meet. I've learned more from panhandlers crossing the street and children than I have from the professors of art who have beseeched me with various devices of their cause. The wisdom from the proletariat is the product of their inability to conceal their basic wants. The wisdom of children, studied through the act of innocently disclosing what they want. When a child wants to be held, there are no formalities in manner and no games involved. It's a truth that they communicate and in the end by virtue of that fact are able to attain affection. No savant has ever shown me that you must simply ask for love when required.
There are two types of people in this world. Those who claim to know life's secrets and those who are eager to spill their knowledge - but for a price. Taking as an example, had I been lost in trying to find the quickest route to Las Vegas and alongside were to find the wise men and their imitators, the geniuses and the fools of the nation all announcing they knew the way, whose directions would I choose? There are many complications in this scenario; some are unable to communicate well, others so blinded by their own reflections that they cannot see, many have never been to Las Vegas and some give incomprehensible directions. Again, I ask which route to take and am thrown in a conundrum with either beggary or a simple finger point somewhere down a horizon that isn't helpful. At this stage I'm stuck. It then dawns upon me that I am my own authority and had I been to Las Vegas myself would I know the proper directions to take without relying on another.
Experience is much like a gift, eager to be opened and even more so, most appealing when used. It's akin to exploring a multidimensional universe, unfurling like a petal in understanding ourselves and arriving at a breakthrough. No sooner does one reach a place in time than does he see the further-most stretches of another world itching to be probed. The willingness to accept an external authority as an overriding authority blocks all discovery of the self. Besides to debar one from growth, it also serves as conduit for allowing chaos to enter within. In truth, and in capsule review, there's nothing worse than pushing aside one's own personal providence and replacing it in lieu with the alien authority of another.
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