Family Portrait It was the best of times. . My wife and I and our two daughters are on Disney family vacation. Coming back from dinner, we pass though the hotel lobby where a sparkling fountain adorns the center square.

Child on the Mall It’s the week before Christmas on the local mall at the height of holiday buy-season. It is late—near closing, which is 11pm. There aren’t many shoppers left.  Of course, the storefronts are adorned to the max in festive holiday décor. The opulent commercialism doesn’t bother me a bit. . It felt childlike cool in those last shopping-minutes to be among the few remaining stragglers in a vast Holiday Wonderland—kind of like having a whole amusement park all to myself!  I smiled as I pondered that one; and my holiday cheer rang up a notch. Just another reason to love Christmas—even at 50 years old, I can still feel like a child on the mall. And so I did.  That’s why The Sadness stunned me off guard.

I recently had a great opportunity to "get real" about workplace diversity by sharing my own story on such with esteemed human resource management colleagues.  The venue was my old stomping grounds in South Jersey, presenting as breakfast speaker for the Tri-State HRMA Diversity Program on October 26 at The Courtyard Marriott, Mount Laurel.  Here's the marquee:

My first ALDAcon “ALDA” is the Association of Late-Deafened Adults—a global membership of people who are deaf or hard of hearing; and most who, like me, lost the gift of crystal sound in their adult lifetime. Their, er... our  2012 International “ALDAcon” annual conference was held this year in Columbia, South Carolina. . On Friday, October 19—on my 51st birthday it so happened— I presented as Keynote Speaker at the kickoff luncheon.  I also gave a workshop on “Perseverance” later that afternoon.  And so I stood, giving a speech to an audience who mostly couldn’t hear me, but who understood every word I said; and imploring triumph over disability, isolation and prejudice to courageous fighters who know far more about those subjects than I.

Here are the presentation slides from my Keynote address at the ALDAcon International Annual Conference on  Friday, October 19th, 2012 in Columbia South Carolina.  The presentation was actually a "starter" for a more extended workshop on "Perseverance to Triumph" later that afternoon. "ALDA" is the Association of Late Deafened Adults.  It was an honor and great opportunity to participate. . Please read my post HERE  "Inspired by True Success"  to understand better why ALDAcon inspired me, more than I anything I could have possibly offered there.  It's beautiful stuff!  "Be Inspired." . Brian Patrick Jensen