As a student at a Jesuit University, I had to take a semester of speech.

In addition to learning how to pronounce common words, heretofore mispronounced, we had to deliver speeches to the class.

Although I had good ideas and an unusual imagination, my delivery was always undermined by emotional self-consciousness. My speeches read well, but we were not permitted to read them.

Several of my speeches have survived all of these years. My final (exam) speech, for which I received a D, and was suspended, is presented here, in a shortened form.

“We, as human beings, have suffered from the insertion into our psyches of three inventions by the Brotherhood of Darkness.

“The first projection, invention or infection was fear, which has continued to torment us and disturb our biology, mind and emotions.

“The second great curse insinuated into our beings by conscious evil was the notion of sin. This included our original stained soul and subsequent chosen actions. Because of our ‘fallen state,’ we have been told that we require redemption or salvation through the means of intermediation between us and a man-made god. These middlemen, of course, constituted a clergical class.

“Lastly, the invention that made volatile our self-confidence and has kept us focused on appearance instead of quality and essence came in the form of the first polished obsidian mirror.

“Fear damages our personalities. Sin ruined our relationship with soul. And mirrors ruined our relationship with ourselves.”

Raphael O’Suna

Haiku