r. Zip, Again

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Lilliland has had its fair share of unique citizens and some time ago there was a person known as Mr. Zip. But since it was quite a while ago, many people did not have a very clear recollection of who he was and what happened to him. He probably just calmed down and fit in with everyone else going about their business and was no longer noticed.

This man, Mr. Zip, had a real name. He was Eddy Edwards who spent his time taking picture of the swans in Lake Lilliland. The pictures were so attractive that they were often seen in magazines.

Eddy seemed to make friends easily and enjoyed a good social life. But the nickname, Mr. Zip, seemed to get in the way of his friendships. Eddy was always rushing around but the reason for the rushing was never quite clear.

Lady Angela of Alpine Castle often had Eddy take pictures from inside her castle since the castle was located right on Lake Lilliland. They often talked about many things and sometimes he would mention that his friends were valued for a while but then they would fade away. He admitted that it was probably because he was so active and running around.

One of his friends asked Eddy when did he come up for air? Eddy just admitted that he was always hyperactive as long as he could remember.

Lady Angela was talking about her concern for Eddy with Professor Hamblin, the Baron’s chief advisor and friend of Lady Angela. The Professor said that it could be a psychological problem known as acute anxiety. One possible solution was to tell Eddy to realize that most people liked to do things at a certain tempo. His own tempo appeared to be stuck in overdrive. It was just too fast and would only cause him to burn out before his time.

“Two things that Eddy may try,” the Professor added, “is to take one thing at a time. Then when he goes from activity one to activity two, build in a short pause. The pause can be only half a minute, but it will help.

“One thing that everyone can do in normal conversation is when a person is about to change the subject, tell the listener that you are changing subjects. These three words seem to help: ‘On another topic...’ That phrase tells the listener that the next information to be discussed has no bearing on the topic that was just concluded. In a good social conversation, everyone should say about the same number of words. That will ensure balance to the dialogue.