Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:25 — 36.1MB)
Bob interviews bestselling author Jim Stovall about his new book “A Christmas Snow”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:25 — 36.1MB)
Bob interviews bestselling author Jim Stovall about his new book “A Christmas Snow”
I’m reading The Nine, by Jeffrey Toobin (of CNN fame). The subtitle is “Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court,” and it is living up to expectations. Toobin does a great job of taking you inside the Court, artfully weaving historical decisions into present cases and currently sitting Justices. Regarding religion and patriotism, I found his comments on the WWII era Jehovah’s Witness cases particularly relevant to some of today’s discussions. He notes that the first case regarding the flag salute and pledge of allegiance, from 1940, found the Supreme Court siding with schools and their insistence that students participate. But then, within 3 years, the Supreme Court, perhaps in recognition of “what could happen in a society where loyalty is coerced and nonconformism punished” (i.e., seeing what was happening in Europe with the Nazis), switched sides. In 1943, the Witnesses won an almost identical case (West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette). Toobin provides us with a quote from what he calls one of the most eloquent Supreme Court opinions. Justice Robert H. Jackson, in writing the majority opinion: “To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds…If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” It certainly makes one think.
This is so simple and yet so hard to do in real life. A woman stopped by to see me the other day. She had moved out a ways on the age continuum. Our eyes connected as we took our seats in my conference room. Her face was full of life and she engaged me immediately. We exchanged a few words to set the stage. Her voice was clear and her words were carefully chosen. She spoke with a great precision, organizing her thoughts into efficient and powerful sentences. She sized me up and decided that I was safe.
What she said to me and the story she told is not important. That she spoke to me and that she told her story is. I listened and listened and then listened some more. I was fascinated and she was comfortable telling her story to me. I learned from her and about her.
So many times we feel compelled to speak, talking, I think, to hear ourselves talk. We should be listening more and talking less. We are missing the stories people will tell us if we just listen. Ask a question and then listen. Listen hard and you’ll be surprised by what you might hear.
I qualify as a professional talk show host and I’m an attorney, so yes, I have to be able to talk. Words are my life. I make my living dwelling in the house of the Word. And, yes indeed I do have to talk. But, my real job is listening. What’s yours?
By Jeff 3 Comments
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:46 — 68.4MB)
My colleague, John A Warnick, has written in his Blog (Seedlings) about Ray Charles in a way that will change your thinking today and maybe forever. Stop by http://johnawarnick.typepad.com/seedlings/2010/08/howling-your-way-to-success.html and see if you don’t agree. Then, share your thoughts and the blog piece with a friend or colleague.