I gave my first speech on behalf of AYCC on Saturday – an event for which I was both very excited and very nervous. I had spent the night before writing it, reading over it and fine-tuning it to perfection until it was just right and ready to be delivered at Sacred Heart Catholic Church’s Environment Fair.
Like so many things in life, not everything went according to plan. The Fair was set to open at 10:30am with a blessing of the animals, but since people arrived in trickles and wandered up slowly to the Franciscan Friar who was doing the blessing, everything just meandered along at it’s own pace. Dogs, rabbits and birds were eventually blessed – along with a few plush puppy toys and even a plastic lizard!
By the time it came to speeches, the kids were all very excited about their toys being blessed, and were running around like mad things. It was such a beautiful day that all anyone wanted to do was bask in the sunshine, and making yourself heard over dog barks and children’s feet was hard, even with a microphone. I had the added challenge of the bell tolling 12 in the middle of my speech, but I got through it in the end, and I think the message sunk in.
In many ways it was the perfect example of what will happen if we let climate change run rampant. The blessed animals would be gone, the children running around so joyously would be older with much greater burdens and responsibility on their shoulders and their children may not have a future to look forward to. It was the epitome of what we are fighting to preserve in the fight against climate change, and days like that are definitely things worth fighting for.
Until next time…
