Listening Out

I sorta like how it is at home.  We do not have a dog, but the neighbour does.  It is a really good watch dog, so it not only alerts the owner to strange goings on but us also.  But sometimes the home is empty but for the dog.  This dog does not normally bark unnecessarily but sometimes it goes off when alone.  It is at that point I have a good listen.  Without fail I hear another dog in the distance barking.  It is faint, and I would normally not hear it, but I do when I listen.
It is funny how words from a song stay with me though it may be years since I heard them.  It is like that with the Simon and Garfunkel words “all lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”  I feel it strongly.  I hear what I want to hear.
I heard about two guys walking the streets of a town.  One was a farmer and the other from the city.   The farmer stopped and said, “I hear a cricket.”  The city person said incredulously, “there is too much traffic noise, and besides there is unlikely to be a cricket here.”  The farmer went to a bush, turned over a few leaves and found the cricket.  The city guy was amazed.  “You have good hearing” he said.  The farmer said, “we hear what we are listening for.”  To illustrate his point, he took out change he had in his pocket and dropped it on the ground.  Instantly passers-by responded.
For me I really feel it matters what I am listening for.  We have Foxtel and I am amazed at the ads for coming up shows.  It is amusing and frustrating how often we go to watch a show and land on an ad.  So may advertised shows are dark.  Good mostly triumphs in the end, but I feel like I have had a bath in mud (bit like the “Splendour in the Grass” people this year).  The world may seem like it has gone crazy but for me it is no surprize considering the diet some have.
For me it is what I am listening for.  It is not a case of pretending that bad stuff does not happen.  It does.  But for me it is a case of trying to ensure I am not the propagator of the bad stuff.  My diet matters.  If I imbibe things that make me a better person that is more likely to come out.  One of the measures for me of me being a better person is the effect I have on others.  Hopefully making them better people.
There is so much I can listen out for.  Some of it makes me a better person and some is a potentially dangerous fad.  The choice of what I listen out for is mine.