Simon Says

The dean of the law school warned us. He warned us that as our legal education progressed we would become very discriminating listeners, that we would become expert at spotting flaws in our classmates’ remarks as our professors grilled them in front of the class, and that for a time we might fail to appreciate talks and lessons in Church as our minds would be drawn to imperfections in the logic or other aspects of the presentations. His warning was warranted, for it described my experience perfectly. Today, years after law school, I sat in a Church meeting in which a member of the congregration sang a solo musical number. I found myself asking what Simon would have to say about this performance - - my mind had been conditioned by a few recent viewings of American Idol. Note: This relates to an experience I had on March 11, but I wrote and originally posted this on March 27, 2006.