Toastmaster Magazine Reading Gathering in May

On this special evening in May, Incumbent D67 Governor Marian Hsiao came join the Toastmaster magazine reading gathering for the first time at a chic Shanghai restaurant in downtown Taipei. When Marian walked in the restaurant on time in her tailor-made blue chipao, how honored we felt to have such an outstanding leader to support our reading group. Marian took charge to order seven delicious Shanghai dishes without ado, presided our reading gathering cheerfully, led us to transcend to a Greek Forum to meet with Aristotle two thousand years ago.

Why did we choose a Shanghai restaurant in the first place? Simply because golden ladies plan to venture to Shanghai via the direct flight between Shanghai and Tapei in the middle of June to visit Pamela who divides her time between Shanghai and Taipei. Some golden ladies want to see the movie scenes of Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution"; some want to collect a few beautifully handmade chi-paos; some want eat the mouthwatering local delicacies; some want to visit the emerging toastmasters clubs in Shanghai to bridge the gap between Taiwan and China. No matter what kind of reasons each golden has in mind, if time and budget allows, no Chinese would want to miss Shanghai—the most extravagant city in modern Chinese society!

Irene selected three feature articles in April issue for us to read at home in advance, "The Equation for Persuasion" by John Coleman, page 8; "Disarm Them With Debate Skills" by Dave Zielinski, page 14; "Lessons from the Ancient Greeks" by Rover Oliver, page 22. To my disappointment, I didn't receive my copy till the last minute. Fortunately Irene sent me the pdf file a couple of days before and I went fetch Michelle's copy on my way to the reading gathering. It has been annoying not being able to receive my toastmaster monthly on time for the past several months. I don't know what happened to the postal services in Taiwan.

When it comes to rhetoric, we must hear what ancient Greeks had to say. Like it or not, we toastmasters must comprehend at least three words in Greek in order to master the art of persuasion, logos, pathos and ethos. They were the three great Greek words we learned this evening. We were enthusiastic to learn from the ancient Greeks how to deliver a persuasive speech with well constructed structures, isolate the problem(s), identify the cause(s)and formulate workable solutions.

But we were more enthusiastic to discuss about the essence of ideal love of Plato, the mentor of Aristotle. What is platonic love? Is there the existence of platonic love, between men and women, gays, lesbians? When we continued our discussion, we were prompted to study more Greek words about love, eros, philia, agape. With the understanding of love and rhetoric in Greek, nothing is Greek to me from this evening.