And now, as he stood on the podium, he saw, heard and literally felt himself from all sides, realizing perfectly well how this murmuring of water in a glass is felt by everyone in this audience. And how he himself looked to each of them.
And that is why he began to make this movement now, after he had said that he was sure that he would be heard by the people who had gone through the most difficult things, who had survived and were already obliged to accept whatever he had to say, simply because it was natural. Nothing in the world is as indestructible as the natural. Like the water that's flowing right now, and everyone can hear it in the speakers. And even though it's just for a couple of moments, it's so self- evident that it starts to be associated with that common flow of I – we – water, that everyone loses any logic and starts to take what's being said as undeniable truth.
Peyton took the glass in his hand and drank a few sips from it, placed his right hand on the edge of the podium in front of him, and then continued:
– I even got a lump in my throat… I got a lump in my throat because I could finally announce that we had reached the next step (index finger jerked upward and spun back a little bit) in our accomplishments in Apollo 24… It's always hard to take in something new, but when it's something new that makes us stronger, we feel completely different… We feel stronger. Stronger and more experienced (index finger sighed upward again). And we know that we can withstand all the trials, all the difficulties that come our way… Because we are one family (he shook both hands in front of him, representing something big). One big family that lives together, solves its problems together… We are responsible for each other at the end of the day… (he shook his index finger from top to bottom).
Peyton turned his head sharply to the side and fell silent. He wanted to listen, to get a better sense of how he was perceived by those around him. He wanted to listen, to get a better sense of how he was being perceived by the people around him, to catch their waves, to make that wave his own and start manipulating it in the direction he wanted it to go.
He could see now that at least three of the two and a half thousand people in the audience were not listening to him. Of course, those were only the people who were showing obvious signs of not listening: looking away or leaning back in their chairs, perhaps even asleep.