sang in the St. Cecelia Choir, I also participated in the hour-
long vesper services at five o’clock, where every fourth Sunday
some outstanding person from the community would come
to speak to us. The choir was personally underwritten by Dr.
Richard A. Billings, our family physician, a prominent mem-
ber of St. Paul, and a Lincoln Republican who voted against
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He mentored me from elemen-
tary school through my early career in the law. I paid very
close attention to how these individuals—preachers and
laypeople—would begin their speeches, how well they made
the point or points of the speech, and how they finished up.
I’d listen to them and I measured them and I had the audac-
ity to grade them. Though young, I had my own sense of who
had prepared well and who had not, who had been eloquent,
who had shown a human touch that drew the audience to lis-
ten to them more attentively. I thought I understood whether
and how the different parts of the sermons and speeches fit
together. I understood that first, the speaker had to lay a
good foundation, to give you his text and subject, to tell you
what he was going to talk about. Then, in the middle part of
the speech I looked for information and inspiration; even at a
young age, I rejected volume and fireworks. Finally came the
crescendo and the conclusion. How could I know all this as a
young boy? It was all intuitive; I could feel it. What I under-
stood then and what I understand now sixty years later is
that if people have to listen to you, then you have a responsi-
bility to give them something to listen to.

INTRODUCTION

xv

1586482985-Jordan:Layout 1 8/25/08 10:09 AM Page xv