The Wrong Messenger

 

"I don't like it!"  Elliot said loudly in a voice dropping with disgruntlement.  "Why does Anna get to choose the music?"

"I am older," Elliot's older sister said with a tone that implied that this explained everything.  Surely, someone with fifteen years on the planet should get to choose the music for the household.

"Dost thou not like Chopin Etudes?"  I queried.  "I know that there is much music under the sun, but I would far rather listen to that music composed by Chopin than such modern composers as Michael Jackson or Elton John."

"I guess Chopin is OK," Elliot replied.  "Just not when Anna picks it."

My eldest daughter does have a great tendency to commandeer the musical playlist.  It is with great frequency that the rest of her sizable family is allowed, nay, subjected to listening to Flute Concertos till the Cows Come Home to Roost.

(For, she is an aspiring Flutist.)

I pondered this conversation long.  I am not totally convinced that my youngest son doth like the piano music of one, Frederic Chopin. but I know for a fact that Elliot's Main Issue was not with this long-deceased, Polish composer, but rather with Anna controlling the soundtrack of his life.

It seemeth clear that there are many times that people are unable to accept good ideas because of the messenger who delivereth them.  Mayhap, they do not desire that particular person to receive acclaim for what seemeth a good idea.  Perhaps, the problem has much to do with the group that this messenger is a member of.

This is most evident in politics.  Democrats despise any plans brought forward by a Republican, regardless of how good it might seem.  The reverse is just as true.

This world is in desperate need of good ideas and life is too short to discount some of them, simply because they come from the wrong source.  For, the light bulb was a great invention, even if Thomas Edison lived in New Jersey and was a vegetarian.

It is sad when a young man cannot enjoy the talents of a great composer like Frederic Chopin, simply because his despised sister has chosen that music.