As an actor and public speaker I have had a few instances when I had to ad lib. As an actor, it was because I forgot the line as it was written, but knew the gist of it. As a public speaker, it might of have been for the same reason, or because I was suddenly struck by something else I wanted to say.
I recently learned a new detail about Dr. Martin Luther King's famous 'I Have A Dream' speech. The phrase 'I have a dream' appears nowhere in text Dr. King used to make that speech. His proposed four-minute speech was extended to sixteen minutes as he expounded on that now famous phrase. The most poignant statement he made was an ad lib. This is how Spirit works through us. Some voice in his head whispered that phrase, he spoke it and people repeated it as a rallying point of the American Civil Rights Movement.
My guess is this is the most powerful ad lib every uttered in a public forum. It was made fifty years ago tomorrow.
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