Getting down off the soapbox and mingling with the crowd

If you passed someone on the street holding forth from atop a soap box on your way to the office, and stood listening to him/her for a few moments, you could be forgiven for not stopping to listen on subsequent days if what you'd heard was not compelling. 

But if you make a point of building time into your daily commute to stand and listen to to this soap box orator day after day - or even go a few blocks out of your way to do so - that would indicate that there is something there that makes you want to come back for more.

But how big a fan would you have to be to invite someone that you only know from hearing a semi-regular, 10 minute harangue, to speak to your colleagues, friends and family?

I have to admit that it is endlessly flattering to have people from all over the world come to my small corner of the Web in order to 'hear' the random things that fall out of my head on any given morning.  Seriously, it never grows old.  And even more flattering is that many of the people who don't agree with me seem to come back again and again in order to voice their disagreement. 

But what blows me away is that occasionally I'll get an invitation to give a live presentation here in Israel or abroad, based solely on my 'status' as a blogger... and I can't help thinking; what the heck are these people smoking?  For all they know I might be an ax murderer or a raving lunatic ... or worse; a religious settler!

Well, it's happened again, and I couldn't possibly be more flattered... or shocked. 

I've been invited to speak in the UK at this year's Limmud Conference which is scheduled to take place (IY"H) during the last week of December at Warwick University (located on the border of Coventry and Warwickshire). 

I have to admit that having spent no more than a day or two in the UK, I was unfamiliar with Limmud.  However, after receiving the invitation I went to their site to see what it was all about, and found that the list of speakers from previous Limmud Conferences was simply astounding.  Seriously, world renowned Rabbis, political figures, scientists, artists, writers, musicians... it was a veritable 'Who's Who' of Western Society. 

So as I sat there looking at this invitation, I had to figure out if perhaps...

a) ... someone was playing a practical joke on me;

b) ... whoever arranged for my invitation to speak wasn't carefully supervised and had made a rash decision for which they will likely to be sacked.

c) ... the vetting process for potential speakers had taken a sudden turn for the worse.

Just to be on the safe side I dashed off an email to the woman who had sent the invitation just to make sure it wasn't a joke.  I should point out that this is far harder than it sounds, because you have to walk a very fine line between sounding genuinely interested (grateful, even), and not wanting to walk face-first into a pie.

In the end it turns out that the invitation to the conference was not only quite genuine, but they want me to give four sessions! Woot!

So now that I've accepted the invitation all I have to do is:

1. Convince Zahava to join me for a week (during the winter) in the UK.

2.  Let my office know I'll be taking some time off.

3.  Come up with some compelling topics (I'll be asking for your help on this one, don't worry!).

The best part (for me, anyway) is that I get to step down off this virtual soap box for a moment and actually meet some real live people.  It'll be nice to finally meet some of the UK treppenwitz readers.  I hope I can live up to my billing.

Updates to follow...