RURAL REFLECTIONS: Little ears

Perhaps I’ve told this story before but it seems important to repeat the message.

I was thinking back over the conversations I’ve had with my youngest granddaughter. It occurred to me that all of the things she had been telling me when she was younger come from the things we tell her.

“Two hands, Honey. Two hands” (We tell her when she rides her lady bug riding toy).

“Don’t fall off. You will get hurt.”

We tell her because we love her. What has she heard?

We are in a time when truth gets twisted and distorted beyond recognition. The questions are: “Do we repeat news without checking it first? Do we talk about it at home or with others when little ears are listening? What are we teaching our teens who are beginning to listen more closely? Can we have unbiased dialogue?”

As a youth, my political party was that of my parents. I never heard the other side. My religious beliefs came from the same source. Even the way I looked at people was influenced by my home life. No doors of investigation were opened. Perhaps none were allowed back then.

So what do we do to the contrary? First of all, we learn to investigate what we see and hear even if it is something that goes against what we believe. Secondly, we have open conversations with young people asking their opinions and allowing them to find their own way, their own beliefs. They learn as well as do we.

Someone posted this and I pass it on:

“Just a friendly reminder that when you say ignorant things about women in power, they don’t hear you.

“But your daughters do. Your mother does. Your sisters hear you. Your nieces hear you, too.”

We are parents and grandparents responsible to open minds and hearts. We show how to love by loving. We show how to think by learning, investigating and often changing. We open dialogue without judgement. We think before we speak.

My sweet girl goes with me to the store where I grab a cart.

“Two hands, MeMe. Two hands.”

When I mention that I can ride a horse, “No, MeMe, you fall off.”

Pretty clear to me. My granddaughter loves me.

Little ears.