{"id":10673,"date":"2014-12-02T11:59:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T16:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=10673"},"modified":"2014-12-02T11:59:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T16:59:23","slug":"avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Glib Grace-Notes in Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday I talked about trying to find an Advent discipline that wasn\u2019t just hard-for-the-sake-of-hard<\/a>, but that would form my conscience in some way.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my attempt: I\u2019m\u00a0trying<\/em> to undertake a conversational fast this Advent season. \u00a0I want to avoid using any one-liners or other kinds of glancing, meant-to-be funny comments in conversation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I want to make Advent humor-free \u2014 I\u2019d still be allowed to tell a funny story or an actual joke \u2014 I\u2019m looking to prune the comments that aren\u2019t deeply knit into the conversation I\u2019m having at present, grace notes<\/a> that could vanish without altering the real flow of the conversation.<\/p>\n

You see, I\u2019ve noticed that these make up the preponderance of my comments in conversation, and I\u2019m pretty sure that means the proportions are off. \u00a0I think I tend to use these\u00a0both<\/em> as a way of showing off my own wit and as more customized version of the \u201cYes, I\u2019m listening\u201d that \u201cuh-huh\u201d or the sign below would indicate.<\/p>\n

\"OH-I-SEE<\/a>
OH-I-SEE (from Lifeprint<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Offering a quick riff on what my interlocutor has just said confirms I\u2019m listening, thinking, and (sometimes!) that I\u2019m understanding. \u00a0A grace note, since it contains a little more content, is more likely to alert my conversational partner that I misunderstood and need something clarified than a simple nod or \u201cuh-huh\u201d would. \u00a0Plus, I think\u00a0some<\/em> of mine are funny or useful connections. \u00a0(And, I still get a pass if these riffs are for the purpose of flirting, though.)<\/p>\n

So, I don\u2019t mean to excise these kinds of comments from my conversations year-round, but I think it would be good for me to take them off of the table until Christmas and see what other options present themselves (deeper, more responsive comments; just, y\u2019know,\u00a0listening<\/em>; etc) when my defaults aren\u2019t available.<\/p>\n

Changing conversational defaults is\u00a0hard<\/em>, so I started on the first day of Advent by just trying to be attentive to\u00a0noticing<\/em> when I was doing this, instead of letting the comments slip by as normal. \u00a0Now that I\u2019ve had a couple days to practice being attentive to this impulse, I\u2019ll be trying to bite back the comments before they slip out, and to get curious about what\u00a0else<\/em> I could be saying instead.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re someone who interacts with me in person, you\u2019re welcome to help out by raising your eyebrows and going, \u201cNecessary, Leah?\u201d if I wind up breaking this fast in front of you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I talked about trying to find an Advent discipline that wasn\u2019t just hard-for-the-sake-of-hard, but that would form my conscience in some way. Here\u2019s my attempt: I\u2019m\u00a0trying to undertake a conversational fast this Advent season. \u00a0I want to avoid using any one-liners or other kinds of glancing, meant-to-be funny comments in conversation. It\u2019s not that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":10674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-debatetactics"],"yoast_head":"\nAvoiding Glib Grace-Notes in Advent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday I talked about trying to find an Advent discipline that wasn't just hard-for-the-sake-of-hard, but that would form my conscience in some way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avoiding Glib Grace-Notes in Advent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday I talked about trying to find an Advent discipline that wasn't just hard-for-the-sake-of-hard, but that would form my conscience in some way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-02T16:59:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2014\/12\/oh-i-see-b4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"226\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"228\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html\",\"name\":\"Avoiding Glib Grace-Notes in Advent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-02T16:59:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-02T16:59:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"Yesterday I talked about trying to find an Advent discipline that wasn't just hard-for-the-sake-of-hard, but that would form my conscience in some way.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/12\/avoiding-glib-grace-notes-in-advent.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Avoiding Glib Grace-Notes in Advent\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. 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