For the past several years, I have subscribed to her 3-hour daily podcasts. So walks in the park have often been to the beat of Dr. Laura preaching, teaching, and nagging callers to do the right thing (as she sees it. And increasingly as I see it, too). I have actually learned a lot from her over the years about what it really means to make children a priority and the raw courage it can sometimes take to stand up for your values.
But when my subscription came up for renewal in June, I let it lapse. I had about 6 months of unplayed podcasts chewing up space on my iPod. I had stopped listening to them during all the hormonal weirdness following my hysterectomy in January. I just didn’t have the energy to listen to or care about other people’s problems. But I am enough of a tightwad that I couldn’t bear to erase the podcasts unplayed. I paid for them, gosh darn it I was going to listen to them.
So over the summer, with a better mind set and a renewed interest in struggles beyond my own, I started plugging through my podcast playlist. Many hours of walking and power washing and other futzing around outside have resulted in me being on the May 4th podcast as of today. Whoo hoo! Just 32 more hours to go!
But something interesting happened several weeks ago.
I discovered this very quirky, very funny, very honest guy on the radio in the mornings. I caught his commentary between songs a couple of times and each time I actually laughed out loud in the car, all by myself. I laughed especially hard as he was lamenting how annoying it is when people have their Facebook profiles locked down with all sorts of privacy settings. How is one supposed to stalk people if they are all privatey? This man was my people. I kept listening.
He mentioned his show has a podcast. I finally went looking for it and started listening last week.
Brant Hansen’s daily podcast is only about 25 minutes long. It’s basically a compilation of the chatter he and his producer, Sherri, do each day in between the songs they introduce on a syndicated radio station. So during my daily walks recently, I have been listening to both Brant and Dr. Laura. And I’ve noticed something very obvious yet subtle: my mood, my perspective, my optimism, even my walking pace…all are impacted by which show I am listening to.
When I am listening to Dr. Laura, I trudge a bit. I walk slower and I tend to look down and around. I rarely smile or laugh. I am not uplifted, I am not encouraged. Instead, listening to other people’s problems has been making me sad. Dr. Laura often raises her voice and interrupts people and uses bold words to get people’s attention to loudly proclaim the advice they have called seeking. This volume and energy has been leaving me feeling a bit agitated and edgy.
Brant is just a guy. He is about my age. He is a dad. He has Aspergers. He is a Christian. His voice is soft and his pace is slow. He likes robots and World War I history. He is very weary of the pervasiveness of pumpkin spice. He is introverted and doesn’t like crowds of people. His humor is dry. He has a way with words that makes me ponder and makes me laugh and makes me wish I were just half as clever. I’m disappointed that his plan to send every listener a baby moose was scuttled by FedEx, Amazon, Amnesty International, and OPEC. Last night he took a homeless guy from his neighborhood out to dinner because he wanted to get to know him. He will be reporting on his experience today.
Did I mention quirky?
When I am listening to Brant, I smile. I laugh. I think. I examine my faith and my purpose. I walk a little faster, more bouncy. I look up and around. I notice the trees and the clouds. I am not agitated and my ears and spirit don’t hurt from the yelling. In fact, they are instead filled with some hope and lightness.
This is all rather fascinating to me. I mean, I’ve heard that what you listen to, what you invite into your life and your head, really does make a difference and can impact you in sneaky ways. But I never really gave the idea much weight. What music to listen to or what radio chatter to follow are such benign decisions, right? As seemingly benign as deciding what toothpaste to buy. It’s just stuff in the background. Or even if it’s in the foreground, it’s just entertainment. And who analyzes and discerns entertainment?
And yet, I am finding I listen to a Brant podcast as a reward for knocking another Dr. Laura hour off my list. Apparently without meaning to, I have been analyzing and discerning.
Rob has been telling me for months that it really is OK to delete all the Dr. Laura podcasts without listening to them. The fact I paid for them shouldn’t dictate I have to listen to each and every one of them, especially when doing so is obviously dragging down my mood and view of the world. Of course he’s right.
And so with a deep breath and a release of tightwaddiness, I am deleting the trudge and inviting the bounce.
I feel better already.
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| Going........ going....... GONE! |
1 comment:
Like like like. This is the same result as that huge Facebook social experiment got. Listening to sadness makes you sad. Even if they're getting good advice. Just stop listening.
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