Why Speeches, Videos, Posts and Almost Everything Else Should Be Short

Graduation usually happens in March in Manila but my grandson will have theirs today, June 23, 2020--a virtual graduation, that is. And it's all going to be in a video, with each top pupil reciting their speech to the graduating classes and to the parents, teachers and staff. [Picture above by Mote Oo Education from Pixabay].

I don't know how the video would end up, but I imagine having the entire graduating class also singing their farewell song "together" though separately. That would take great effort taking videos of them separately and then bring the separate videos together in harmony in one video. I hope somebody does that. 

So it's got to be short speeches, taking perhaps 2 to 3 minutes each. I'd say one minute each is enough. I never go for long talks, Try reading Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and it won't take you 3 minutes to finish. The 10 Commandments would take less.  Yet they were powerful speeches. So I preach short messages, too, when we have our WORD sesions.

Anyway, my son and daughter-in-law asked me to compose a short, simple one for their kid, knowing me to be adept doing speeches like that. Here goes...

Hi there everyone--classmates, teachers and parents. It's wonderful to be part of this unique virtual graduation ceremony which I guess not many in the history of schooling are privileged to have. Graduating separately and yet also "together" in a real sense. It's like schooling and life. We go through them separately and yet together.

Anyway, I thank God for helping me finish preschool and am looking forward to a more exciting and adventurous first grade level. I hope to see you all again guys--my classmates--and also you dear teachers this August, on virtual classrooms during Zoom and Google class sessions. I can't wait to see it all happen.

Thank you, and may God bless and protect us all!

That's it. I timed it, reciting it in the way my grandson would, and it's less than a minute. Shorter than Nas' one-minute videos.  

Almost everything has to be short and simple but clear, precise, comprehensive and direct to the point. Not much garnishing or "palabok" as some would say in Manila. I don't believe in roundabout talks like what most online business videos do. They sell or offer something but won't say what it is unless they have talked lengthily about other things first. It's baloney and smells of scam. 

Like a blog article. The standard is 300 to 400 words. Sometimes 500 for technical articles. But anything less is too short and anything more than that is too wordy and tiring to read. I hate information overload. I don't care how good a speaker is, if he keeps talking and talking, taking longer than necessary, I get tired and very few details get retained in the mind (if any) in the end. Wasteful. Prodigal. 

Finally (before I take too long), look at God. I love this passage in Exodus 19.20-21. When God descended on Mt. Sinai, he called Moses to go up to the top of the mountain. Now, for an 80-year old to climb a mountain is no easy task, to think that it involved long treks and possibly even rock climbing. There was no road or highway then. And when he got to the top, do you know what God told him? God said, "Go down." 

Short but powerful.