Storytelling is an indispensable part of successful speeches — from meta-narratives that join a speaker and audience in common cause, to humorous stories that build rapport and ease, to illustrative vignettes that bring to life key concepts or ideas.
Yesterday, Senator Joe Biden’s emotional farewell to the U.S. Senate was a terrific collection of personal reflections that told the story not only of one man’s 36-year Senate career — from awe-struck freshman to august “old bull” – but also offered a wonderful window on the U.S. Senate itself: on how “personal relationships are the one thing that unlock the true potential of this place,” how mutual respect can transcend partisan divides, and how minds are opened, opinions changed, and common ground ultimately reached.
Many of the memories Senator Biden shared held larger lessons, but here’s one that was just plain fun:
“I used to go over after every executive session at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee and go into Jim Neeson’s office, which was catty corner, and sit down in his lobby to ask him all the dumb questions a young kid would want to ask. Who’s the most powerful man you ever met, Senator? What was the most significant thing that ever occurred since you’ve been here, et cetera.
By the way, on that score, I asked him that, he looked at me, he said, “Air conditioning.”
I said, “I beg your pardon.”
He said, “The most significant thing that happened since I got here since I got here is air conditioning.”
I thought, “Wow, that’s kind of strange.”
He said, “Well,” he said, “You know, Joe,” he said, “before we had air conditioning,” he said, “all those recess lighting (ph), all of they used to be great pieces of glass, like in showers.” He said, “Come around May, that sun” — he used to use a little bit of profanity which I will not use for appropriate reasons — he said, “that darn sun would beat down on that dome hit that glass, act like a magnifying glass, heat up the chamber, and we’d all go home in May or June for the year. He said, “Then we put in air conditioning and stayed year round and ruined America.”"
And here’s a powerful love story, crystallized in just two sentences:
“To my Jill, you once saved my life. You are my life today.”
