Tuesday
January 6, 2015
Listen Closely
Later that night I
found myself sitting on a bench in a locker room, sweating a puddle and trying
not to have a heart attack. To my left,
two Vietnam vets whose paths had probably crossed while they were overseas, but
who didn’t think they had met, were comparing where they’d served. I heard a message in the pride, camaraderie,
and sadness in their voices.
To my right an older man
from India was talking with a college student about his first impressions of American
elections. He still had an outsider’s
view, not yet swayed by the anger and polarization of our politics. I was very interested in what he had to say.
Just when I thought I’d
settle in to listen, The Inane Brothers Cliché Festival started up across the
locker room. I had caught their act many
times. Even though they both looked to be in their late forties, I had given
them old-fashioned nicknames.
“You can’t win ‘em all!”
Twaddle said for no apparent reason, laughing loudly.
“Well what if you
could?” Bunkum asked, laughing louder than Twaddle had.
“You’d be a winner, but
would you prosper?” Twaddle replied. They
both laughed. My eyelid started to twitch.
“It’s cheaters that
never prosper,” Bunkum said, injecting some seriousness into their
conversation. It went downhill from there.
How justifiable does a homicide
have to be, I wondered? And why do
people who have nothing to say always say it so loud?
I realized I couldn’t
make out what the man from India was saying, but if I strained a little I could
still hear the conversation between the vets.
Today I
will listen for the message that sometimes gets lost in the noise.
Relapse Prevention Group © 2014 by Ken Montrose
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