Never Satisfied

What in the heck am I doing, standing here before you? Who am I to be given the opportunity to speak to you? Shortly after I was informed about this honor, I told Andrew Guccione that I felt like a fraud, and he gave me a self-help book entitled Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy.1 It didn't work. I have received all sorts of advice this year about the content of this lecture. Some told me to be folksy or funny; Charles Magistro told me to jot down thoughts throughout the year, but brilliance didn't emerge from the chaos of papers strewn all over the dining room; some said to be visionary, while others said it would be dry to listen to a vision since I wasn't Helen Hislop and didn't have a crystal ball. A consistent message, however, was just to be myself; Jules Rothstein told me to share my love for the profession with you. So, although I still feel that there are many others who should be here instead of me, I am here and will do the very best that I can.