This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Gaby Roslin (Zoe Ball away for the day).
I really don’t know how to break this to you, but I think I’m becoming a Swiftie.
Until recently I didn’t know what a Swiftie was. Then my granddaughter got going. She was eleven a couple of weeks ago and we went over to Liverpool to celebrate. I think every present she got was Taylor Swift related. She even then went out and bought a couple of vinyl albums – very pink!
So, there’s no alternative. If I want to be able to hold a conversation with her, I need to know something about Taylor Swift – something other than who her boyfriend is and how much cash she has in the bank.
I’ve now listened to three albums, starting with the new version of her original album, 1989 – ‘Taylor’s Version’. Now, I’m a Bruce Springsteen man with Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Bruce Cockburn on repeat. So, I have to make a shift when listening to Taylor and not listen through a filter shaped like one of the Bruces. I consciously have to opt out of comparing and listen to Taylor on her own terms.
Now, I think this has something to say about how people relate to and communicate with each other. I often have to listen to people argue their point in such a way as to miss the point. Getting my view across is not the same as genuinely listening to the other person, hearing them on their own terms, and understanding why they might be saying what they are saying in the way they are saying it.
Key to this is learning to pay attention and listen carefully. Only then can I know how to respond and what language to use … that has a chance of being heard. Just like listening to Taylor Swift on her own terms compels me to not jump to judgment. There is good Christian precedent for this: Jesus often declined to answer the question put to him … but responded to the deeper issue that he saw behind the words.
So, I want to be fearless in listening and speak now, careless of reputation. I’m not a Swiftie yet, but you never know…
