Year 3, Day 294: Shakespeare Institute - "Listen to the PhD, child..."

The reason I am doing my PhD has been made clear to me many times.  I began this whole process in an effort to make people listen, and a PhD hanging on my office wall might help me do that.  If I publish a book, a few more people might listen.  I could change the world if I could only make people listen.  If only...

Instead, I have come to the conclusion that the PhD is for no one else but myself.  I have studied, researched, and written about Shakespeare, the RSC, and A Midsummer Night's Dream enough to know that a PhD is not a lesson to the rest of the world that speaks volumes about the guy who bothered to write it.  It is a lesson in listening.  You cannot come to a conclusion about someone unless you've heard their story, and even then, it is only speculation.  It is a lesson in learning.  No kidding.  When does research end and scholarship begin?  Right about the time you are no longer a casual observer, but an active participant in the process.  In other words, its as if you were watching a movie and then one of the characters on screen turned to you and asked, "hey, what do you think?" or actually reached through the fourth wall to shake your hand when you proffered it.  Not because you were looking to change things, but because you were paying attention so well that they in turn paid attention to you.  If you listen well enough and ask the questions that need answering, those that you would hear speak, will begin to listen.

The PhD does not make people listen to you.  Most people will pause maybe long enough to bother to see what the PhD was actually written on (e.g. paper or plastic).  Having the prefix "Dr." as anything other than an M.D. means that you are probably going to bore the crap out of them that listen to whatever it is you have to say, so why bother, right?  So, the smartest thing you can be in this world is a collector of stories, a listener, an examiner, and an inquirer...  (I'm not suggesting y'all start writing a magazine or newspaper, but if its something you believe in, could it hurt?)  ... and a PhD is the greatest lesson in listening ever devised.

That all being said, I suck at listening and really need to work on that.  Maybe if I yell a little louder, I will hear a little better.  That's how it works, right?

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT'S
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anthing can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be. --Shel Silverstein, "Where The Sidewalk Ends"

Year 3, Day 294 - Words Written: -- something, something, blog, something, the end --