COMMIT AN ACT OF PREMEDITATED CREATIVITY BY BLENDING ART AND SPEAKING
BY RICHARD HIGHT
ce
ver the course of time, my
mom, my high school teach-
ers, and my wife have all
labeled me a rebel—and almost
anybody who has ever met me would
likely agree. Mind you, I’m not using the
word in the pejorative sense of “diffi-
cult” or “uncooperative.” In this context,
I mean freed from the constraints of
small thinking…and always questioning
the status quo. That’s me.
Choosing public speaking as a life
path has been an experience not unlike
flying down a steep, twisty water slide in
a Speedo. Afterwards, you’re left asking,
“Was that fun or was it horrifyingly
painful?” Add in my love of art, notorious
for creating “starving artists” the world
over, and mine was clearly the rebel track.
No one is truly self made and, in
one key respect, the path chose me.
One day in school, a set of colored
chalks magically appeared at the
blackboard in math class—a perfect
way to indulge my love of doodling.
Decades later, I happened to run
into the lady who taught the class.
When she inquired about my life,
I told her about the work I was
doing—and it was then she
