Listen Carefully!

As a musician, I understand the importance and necessitiy of my auditory sense. It acts as the governor that assimilates all my senses into a complete sensory experience. For young musicians, developing their listening skills was, perhaps, the greatest gift I could give them as a music educator.

What does careful listening accomplish?

• Marital bliss
• Prevents a pedestrian from being hit by a vehicle
• Hearing the cries of a baby or toddler
• Job security
• Enjoying a good joke
• Drinking in the sounds of nature
• Ascertaining car trouble while it may still be minor
• Discovering incorrect notes in a musical performance
• Taking away important points in a sermon
• Understanding that the dog is about to bite
• Understanding that the grumpy kitty is not happy
• Ferreting out the pesky squeak in a boat's engines
• Finding the cricket hidden in your house
• Writing the check correctly
  
• Being able to accept an apology
• Realizing that you need to make an apology
• Figuring out that the carbonated beverage you are about to drink has lost its fizz
• Saving yourself from a fatal snake bite
• Getting wet when your pool toy springs a leak
  
• Prevention of making a fool of yourself

It is this last bullet that was the inspiration of today's blog. My topic today should really have been about reading AND listening carefully.

You see, a friend of mine recently established a photography website called eagleeyephotography. He sent me an email with the title in the subject line, to which I gave a quick, cursury look and then moved on to other tasks, thinking I would check out his website at a later time. I did not read carefully. Later that same day, prior to running a rehearsal of a group that this man is a part of, I overheard, but not carefully, him speaking to another member of the group, explaining his photography web site. What I thought I heard him say was, "My web site is called e coli photography. Since, at that point, I was now guilty of not reading or listening carefully, I thought to myself that this was the most strange and bizarre web site title I could imagine and I wondered what he was thinking when he named his web site e coli photography.

Moving ahead in time, I checked my email this morning and found a day-two posting of his web site in my inbox. To my amazement and private embarrassment, I noted that his web site is called eagleeyephotography NOT e coli photography! The two titles are worlds apart in meaning and intent but actually quite close from an auditory perception point of 'view'. With this realization, I would describe myself as ROFL at my innocent, yet outrageous, error due to inadequate auditory skills.

Please take a cue from my mistake. Listen AND read carefully - always. You could save your life, important relationships, your job, or - prevent egg from covering your face.

Ancora imparo