The Hair Dryer 2
I decided that even though God made my hair dryer heat up again (see my most recent post), He might not intend for that to be a permanent fix, so I bought a new one. Actually, since hair dryers often (always?) break at an inconvenient time, I decided to buy a spare. My new hair dryers are identical twins.
I was amused at some of the instructions that came with the one I opened:
- Do not use while bathing. (Might I get my hair wet if I tried that?)
- While using appliance, keep hair out of it. (Remember now, you put clothes inside a clothes dryer, but you don’t put hair inside a hair dryer!)
- Do not place in, or drop into water or other liquid. (Not even in white vinegar? How am I ever going to sanitize my hair dryer?)
- Never use while sleeping. (Isn’t this taking multi-tasking to an extreme?)
Well! Who do the hair dryer manufacturers think I am? A nincompoop?
A friend recently told me about her experience at her pediatrician’s office. She couldn’t believe the ridiculous seeming instructions she got about obvious things. She wondered just what this doctor thought of her! After all, she had three children. Hadn’t she learned anything?
When she told this story, I wondered if doctors feel a need to do this because many young women haven’t been taught well by older generations. When I read my hair dryer instructions, I wondered about that again. Then I began to think about the other side of the coin. All instruction takes two basic ingredients–a teacher willing to teach and a learner willing to learn. Perhaps the problem goes both ways. Maybe parents aren’t teaching well; maybe children aren’t listening.
We need to train our children to be good learners and, while we’re at it, we need to be good examples by continuing to learn from our own parents. Generation to generation teaching and learning–what a shame to miss out on the wisdom of that.
Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old. . . .
Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.
Proverbs 23:22, 25, NASB