Listen … And You Will Learn

May 21, 2009 by winjaw

There are two types of people who watch movies.

– Those who sit quietly watching, letting the movie unfold before them. Waiting with anticipation to see what occurs next. That would be me.

– Those who ask questions. Not the “what did he/she just say” because they didn’t hear it. No, these are the types of questions that are asked before something happens. These are the types who want to know what happens before it happens. That would be the Little Black Dress and the Sons of Thunder.

These two types should never watch movies together. Nothing pleasant ever comes out of said shared viewing, and there will be repercussions.

Case in point: It’s Friday night and therefore family movie night. Tonight’s feature is Hidalgo – a movie about a great long-distance horse race across the Arabian deserts. Let’s enjoy, shall we?

Or not.

Because we’re not three minutes into the movie before the Sons of Thunder start firing away: “what’s the horse’s name?; why is it that color?; who’s that guy?; what’s the letter say?; why’d they shoot that Indian?; why are they at a rodeo?; who’s that girl?; why are they on a train?; why’s he going to race in another country?’ where’s Arabia?; are those guns real?; can we have some more popcorn?”

Lord help me, because I just lose it. And in my most authoritative voice say, “Listen … and you will learn.” And after every question I say the same thing because as soon as they ask the question, it gets answered within seconds in the movie.

And I keep saying, “listen … and you will learn,” followed by “see, they just answered your question. If you will just LISTEN … YOU WILL LEARN.”

And it’s about that time the Little Black Dress uses that sweet little syrupy voice and says, “now dad, this is a wonderful educational opportunity, you should explain it to them so they understand.”

And I’m like, well, if they LISTEN … THEY WILL LEARN.

So the Little Black Dress just smiles and says, “now boys, you need to be quiet so your “father” can watch his movie. I’ll explain it to you if you come over here to me.”

It’s the way she said, and enunciated  “father” that did it. You know, that condescending tone women can get.

Well, let’s just flash forward to the American Idol finale where the winner is about to be announced. The Little Black Dress does not miss American Idol. Ever.

And so they’re about to announce the winner and the Sons of Thunder start firing away with questions.
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And out of the pits of Hades comes this voice: “LISTEN … AND YOU WILL LEARN AND IF I MISS THIS JUST REMEMBER I BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS WORLD AND I CAN TAKE YOU OUT!!!!”

And so the Sons of Thunder look at me and I look at them and we don’t say a friggin word. Because we look over at the Little Black Dress, or whether where the Little Black Dress was. And in her place is this huge cloud of billowing smoke and fire and lightening – think Sith Lord/Sauron/Mount Doom all combined into one.

We may be dumb, but we’re not stupid. And no one says a thing.

Except me. Because let’s face it, I simply can’t resist.

And in my sweetest voice I say “honey, this is a wonderful education opportunity and you should explain it to them so they understand.”

And then I duck just in time before the River of Fire spews out of the Little Black Dress’ mouth towards me.

Later that night I think this really is – seriously – a wonderful chance to teach the Sons of Thunder something about life. And that’s that we as a society talk way too much, but we don’t listen.

We focus on what we want to say, and rarely hear the other person. We talk, we e-mail, we text, we video, we twitter, we do all sorts of things to get our message out, but we don’t stop and listen.

You’ve probably noticed the tag line beneath the title of this blog is “Speak only to improve the silence.” I really believe that. Noise is just noise. Contribute to the conversation, don’t be the conversation.

So I’m thinking of all this as we’re putting the Sons of Thunder to bed. And after prayers I pull them all together and remind them that we should listen first, because we will learn more.

And I point out that God gave us two eyes and two ears, yet only one mouth. “You see, that means we should listen and watch twice as much as we talk,” I tell them.

“If God wanted us to talk more, he would have given us two mouths and only one ear,” I added.

And Sons of Thunder No. 2 looks at me with total disbelief and says, “Uh Dad, that would be pretty dumb on God’s part, we’d look silly.”

So that lesson went over pretty well.