On May 20, our special guest speaker Lee Coffee Jr. presented Capturing the Magic in the Moment. He has been a social justice practitioner for 33 years. He combines the creativity of storytelling with the analysis of philosophy, psychology, nursing, and leadership best practices. Over 30 people attended and gained from Lee's message. Brittney served as Toastmaster.

Lee opened with, "What has death taught you? How has working at MD Anderson taught you to capture the magic in the moment?" Lee proceeded to discuss that what he learned in the formative years from the age of 10 to 17 was that life is very fleeting. He told stories of loved ones he had lost, and gave us a true sense of how meaningful the connections were to him.

The best thing to happen to him in March of 2020, he said, was COVID. It allowed him to go home and sit, reflect, and consider where he had been and how he had lived his life. He has always captured the magic in the moment. The morning a dear loved one died, he tried to grasp the reality of what had just happened. He felt the sun on his face, smelled the bacon cooking, heard the clock ticking. He was present. He learned how important it was to be awake. He decided he was going to write books, have a piece of land, and he has strived to do that all of his adult life.

Lee ended by quoting the French Quaker Steven Grellet, "Any kindness I can show to my fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again." He encouraged the audience to create the magic in the moment with love and respect.

Lucas served as Table Topics Master for the extemporaneous speaking portion of the meeting. Brittney led off, describing a scene from a movie that was especially poignant. Ruth spoke of the scent of jollof rice. In addition, two guests participated skillfully in Table Topics and it was appreciated that they were willing to step up.

Loni ended the meeting with a speech evaluation and general evaluator's report. We value evaluation because it's there to show you what you excel at so that you can lean into those strengths going forward and also highlights areas for growth. She liked how Lee opened the speech with a story; it established familiarity that can lead the audience to be more receptive to the overall message. She loved how impactful the question “What has death taught you?” was. We don’t often think about death as a vehicle of personal growth; Excellent job tying the message about the meaning of death back to our mission at MD Anderson.

Evaluating the meeting overall, Loni explained that a sign of an experienced Table Topics Master is to clearly listen to the answers given, as Lucas had done. One of the fun things about our meetings is to learn something new about each other.

Thank you, Lee, for being our guest and thanks to all who attended!