Pretending to Care 101
I liked Nancy’s story the best because I found it the most endearing. Her father gave the most boring subject matter – the Erie Canal – and she turned it into something cute and entertaining. I feel like we all are faced with this. Our parents have an idea of something we should be doing, and we have to find a way to put our own spin on it. This both appeases them and allows us to use their advice the best that we can. Also, Nancy has a pretty good voice.
But I also thought Robyn’s story was universally applicable. We all have old, or even not-so-old, relatives who have one thing that they’re really proud of and that they repeat over and over. Usually, they don’t mean to be repetitive and sincerely believe that they’ve never told the story before. Every time I visit my grandfather, he still goes into microscopic scientific detail about how, as an engineer, he invented a mechanism for aircraft called a “foil bearing.” Although I’ve heard this story countless times, and it’s not very interesting, it’s my duty to listen every time. Because that’s what we kids and grandkids have to do until we achieve something significant enough to then retell to our children over and over.
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I thought Robyn’s post was also interesting because her father seems like someone with a great imagination. Not caring about the usefulness of it, he goes into creating this console with buttons through hard work (which I thought was fascinating and extremely impressive). Robyn’s story highlights a personal moment in her father’s life and lets us view a part of him and his personality as he retells the story. You can just tell he is the type of guy who gets easily excited over little things he gets the opportunity to tinker with.
Honestly, I think I fell asleep for the Erie Canal segment but now I want to give it a listen. I completely agree with the second half of your post. When we face the dreadful time in which we have to listen to that relative tell that story ONE MORE TIME we know we can’t be rude. We can’t roll our eyes and sigh dramatically. We just have to listen and pretend that we’re as interested as they want us to be. Usually whatever little bit of a soul I have kicks in when I have to listen to these stories and I very politely nod and ‘oo’ and ‘ahh’ when I have to. Isn’t it funny that it’s so much easier to shut down a friend when they’ve repeated a story one too many times? “SHUTTUP JACKY WE KNOW YOU SAW A REALLY CUTE HUSKY ON 93RD AND 5TH LAST WEEK” Maybe my friends are a little more blunt, but I think you get the idea. No matter how boring, and meaningless the story might be, sometimes we just have to listen.
I couldn’t agree more to the last part of your blog post. I really liked how you pointed out that it is our “duty” to respectfully listen to them. When I was young, I remember sitting down with my cousins and being fascinated by my grandpa’s stories. But as we grew older with our own knowledge and perspective of the world most of my older cousins would leave the seat and I would be the only one left to listen to grandpa. In the latter days, I did it mostly out of “responsibility” and to pay respect to my grandfather. But I guess listening to it really pays off because it gives us to have a great story to pass down to our grandkids and their grandkids as well.