Care a little, why don't you?

It irritates me when people don't make any effort to understand my interests. (It used to irritate me when people didn't share those interests, so I have progressed.) I am far more likely to be VERY interested in something than just casually interested, far more likely to say "I LOVE that!" than "Ah, it's okay, I guess." My interests are a part of me, and if people don't even give them the benefit of a second glance, it bothers me.

For example, I greatly enjoy carpooling. One of the things I like about it is getting to experience the music of others. I like to hear what sort of music comes from their CD/MP3 player, cassette deck, or favorite radio station. (My earliest memory of this sort of thing is being over at the duplex, down in Morgan's room with Karl and Morgan and Cathy, and hearing the new version of "Smooth Criminal," because, as Karl said, "I feel a need to educate you musically every time you come.") I appreciate the opportunity to share in something that in some sense belongs to the other person/people with me. So when I'm driving, and it's my music playing, and somebody says, "No, we're not listening to this song...change it, change it," it feels like a rejection to me. I have to fight to remember that not everyone would see it like that.

It's because I feel this strongly about this issue that I work hard to respect the interests of others, and even to understand why they are interested. In the case of very good friends, I want to be interested, too. Classic example: trying to care about sports. On my own, I do not care. But when presented with a friend who is passionate about hockey/tennis/football/etc., I try to learn about it and to understand why it fascinates them so much.

So I have rather a Martha complex about interests. "I'm making a really good effort here, and you're just ignoring me!" I like a little quid pro quo. Especially when we're talking about something creative, really. I have had conversations in which I talked about writing poetry, or finishing a first draft of a children's book, in which people either say "That's nice," or just gloss over it. And it kind of makes me want to say, "Hello, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I've just shared something personal, something that I'm proud of, and you brushed me off. You've just rejected a part of my soul."

Really, that's what all this is about, isn't it? The desire for people to care about us deeply enough to share their interests with us AND to share ours, too. And I think part of the reason God made so many different kinds of people is to give us the opportunity to see His world in so many different kinds of ways.

So listen to your friends' strange music, and watch their war movies, and be intrigued by their creative expression. It will be a blessing for you and for them.