You find what you are looking for

We went to the play Blithe Spirit (a British comedy by Noel Coward) on Wednesday. On a scale of 1-10, it was about a 3. Not my favorite, but there were a few funny parts. I kept thinking, "If this were on TV, I'd change the channel." That is not a good thought to entertain if you are going to enjoy the play.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately: The Help, The Language of Sycamores, The Summer Kitchen, My Grandfather's Son, The Undaunted, and am currently reading Vienna Prelude. The Help is the best, but I really liked My Grandfather's Son as well!

It is easy to become critical: too self-serving, the love story is too predictable, everything turns out too perfectly, unrealistic plot, the characters are shallow. Vienna Prelude is the first volume of a twelve volume sequence on Nazi Germany. The lead character is a beautiful and talented violin player. It becomes a little trite as everywhere she goes yet another man falls in love with her because of her beauty. I hate the message that important or loveable women MUST be beautiful and talented at everything. I would much rather hear about ordinary people who were successful. The message that only beautiful and talented people are successful gives the bulk of humanity the excuse to say, "Well, I would try harder if I were just beautiful and talented." A good friend recommended the book, so I'm practicing looking beyond this annoying factor and looking for other admirable traits. I think in life, you find what you are looking for.

A while back I went to a faculty member's lecture. He is quite well liked, so I was expecting his class to be great. He had an annoying habit of repeating the same no content phrase at the end of every sentence or two. Once I noticed it, I started marking each time he said it in order to figure out if it was as bad as I thought. It was. It about drove me crazy. I couldn't even hear what he said because I was so distracted by his constant repetition. The rest of the class wasn't phased. Because I was looking for it, that is all I heard.

I have a friend who struggles with church attendance. She said to me once, "Church is so boring. I hate it when they just read to me. I'd rather be home reading scriptures on my own or doing extraction." At first, I wasn't sure what kind of ward she attended where people just read the lessons, but after she mentioned that, I noticed how much of lesson time is spend just reading - scriptures, quotes, stories. Since my mine wanders whenever someone reads, I can relate to her concern.

My conclusion is that you find what you are looking for. If you are looking for some reason not to enjoy a book, listen during a lecture, or enjoy church, there are always plenty of aspects to criticize. The real talent is not in finding the things you dislike, but in applauding the positive.