DO YOU PAY ATTENTION?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

President Franklin Roosevelt had grown increasingly tired of the long receiving lines at White House functions. After more than a decade of such ceremonial duties, he complained to his aides that no one paid any attention to the words exchanged. No matter what he said, he would continually hear comments such as "Well done, Mr President," "Congratulations, Mr. President," or "Good job, Mr. President."

So on one occasion, unable to endure the boredom of it any longer, he decided to have some fun with his guests. As each person passed by in the receiving line, shaking his hand, Roosevelt whispered, "I murdered my grandmother this morning!"

His guests responded with "Marvelous!" "Keep up the good work," or "God bless you, Mr. President."

It wasn't until the end of the receiving line, as the ambassador of Bolivia passed by, that the meaning of his words was finally heard. Unflustered, the ambassador leaned over to Roosevelt and responded: "I'm sure she had it coming, Mr. President."

How often in our lives are we hearing but not listening?

(From The Power to Change Today by Gregory Dickow)

9 comments:

Heart2Heart said...

I love this post! It had me laughing all the way to the end. I would have never guessed that our President had a great sense of humor.

That just shows how we should all be better listeners.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Loren said...

Oh my I would have loved to have seen his face throughout this!

and yes...give us EARS to hear!!

blessings Clif

SmilingSally said...

You gave me a chuckle with that one.

RCUBEs said...

Thanks for the laugh. Most of the time, we are not practicing the gift of having 2 ears vs. 1 mouth.

Mevely317 said...

Ah, this is a great tale!!! ... I'm going to beckon hubby in just a sec to come look-see. I wholly believe humor is a great vehicle to make a point.

Karen said...

We had a dentist like that. He would ask, How are you?" and no matter what we replied, he would exclaim, "Fabulous!"

bp said...

Happy Wednesday to you!

I enjoyed this post, it made me smile actually. Thank you for sharing.

Yellow Rose Arbor said...

Cute story!

Katherine

Jillian's Bella Rosa Antiques said...

Oh dear! I'm sorry but I just had to laugh at this one. But interesting to point out...are we just going through the motions sometimes????