From Living It Daily Ok, I tried to let this go and move on, but I just couldn’t. That’s why I’m writing this as Part 2 of my previous article. It isn’t a repeat, but it is an extension. In Part 1, I mentioned a song I wrote, “Ain’t Nobody Listening, Anyway,” but I intentionally left out the words and just talked about it. This time, I’m going to share the whole thing, because the song leaves very little to the imagination. I want to talk about the world close to us: the conversations we have with friends, the news we watch, the entertainment we indulge in, and how all of it shapes what we believe. If I can be a little blunt, I want to talk about the negative effects we’re seeing and what we can or can’t do about them. What am I talking about? I’m sure you can guess. It’s how captivated we’ve become by our technology: the cell phones, the tablets, and the ever-increasing 24/7 connection to the news cycle and social media. That constant stream doesn’t just keep us busy. It feeds us narratives, and it’s easy to stop questioning them. Many people are so busy with their heads buried in their technology that they don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them. Eventually, they only listen to the people who agree with them, even when that advice is counterproductive. They’ve chosen their path and decided they know all they need to know. You can see where that path is heading, and you think you may have some good advice for them because of your age and experience. But when you try to share that hard-earned wisdom, they won’t listen. That’s where this song came from. It took me over a year to write to what I’d call completion. It’s one of those situations where you have an idea and a few words that stick with you, but the thing just won’t come together. For the longest time, the only lines I had were the opening lines of the chorus. Some verses were written and set aside, to be considered later as options. I won’t start with the chorus, but I will give you the full song, because it says a lot more in fewer words than I can in a long explanation. Here is the song: Ain’t Nobody Listening, Anyway By Rusty Norman (Verse 1) Take a look all around, there’s a sight will astound, The people are all looking down. They stare at their tablets, and at their cell phones, Never notice the troubles all ’round. Seems they don’t understand, all the people they’re around Are doing the same things that they are. When the blind lead the blind, too late they will find The Truth they should already know. (Chorus) Oh, if you think that you know where you’re going, And you know that you know where you’ve been, And you think that you have lots of good things to tell them, I’ll tell you now, my friend, When you go and try to tell them, You’ll find nobody’s listening, Anyway. (Verse 2) There’s a fork in the road that they’re trav’ling, With a wrong way and right way to go. But they choose the disguise, a pathway of lies, Never finding the way they should know. Not seeing what they have before them, From the history that they never learned. And they’ve chosen the lies in that clever disguise, Never finding the way they should go. (Chorus) Because they’re so immersed in social media, people can become convinced they know enough and need no further input. This is especially true of input that seems outdated or goes against what they’ve been told, or what they’ve told themselves. They live in their own secure little bubble of insecurity and follow the crowd, even when the crowd is heading the wrong direction. That’s where the frustration starts for me. But if I’m honest, it’s something I experienced myself. In my late teens and through most of my twenties, I thought I knew better than the older people around me. I just figured they were the ones who were old and out of touch. It reminds me of something I heard in my late twenties during a motivational talk. It gave me something I hadn’t expected: insight. No one knows who originally said it. It’s often attributed to Mark Twain, though it’s never been found in his writings. I’m sure you’ve heard some version of it. (Disclaimer: I’m slightly changing the wording to fit my age at the time I heard it.) It goes like this: When I was a young man of 17, I thought my father was so out of touch and ignorant that I could hardly stand to have the old man around or listen to him. When I turned 27, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 10 years. You know as well as I do that the one who learned so much in those ten years wasn’t the father. It was the son. Something about moving through the years makes you realize how much you need the input of those who have gone before you. People who have traveled through the ups and downs of life come out the other side wiser and have much to offer. They often prove the old adage: wisdom comes with age. It’s not uncommon for younger people to think they know more, because they believe their thinking hasn’t been “clouded” by years of experience. They may even believe they have a fresher answer and a better grip on life’s trials than someone who has already traveled those same paths. That’s not to say they can’t have a good or even better answer. But that doesn’t mean they should ignore the input of those who have “been there and done that.” So, why does it bother me so much when I go through the same experience with people younger than me? Why is it so easy to become frustrated when I was just like them at their age? As I look back over my younger years, I see many problems I could have avoided “if only” I had listened to the advice of those who’d gone before me, whether I asked for it or not. Maybe that’s why it’s so frustrating when others don’t listen. Life doesn’t have to be a vicious circle of repeating the same mistakes when someone is willing to show you how to avoid them. But I also learned something coming out the other side of this. Now that I’ve gained almost fifty years of my own life experience, I can see that what finally got through to me wasn’t what they said in the moment. As I traveled my own path and made my own way, their words seemed to come back and haunt me, because I discovered those words had proved true. They had told me the path I was on was wrong. I didn’t listen because I was young and impatient. I thought my way was better. What I didn’t have was enough life experience. They had traveled that path before me and discovered the truth on the other side of the struggles and decisions, so they spoke that truth to me whether I would listen or not. They didn’t lecture. They didn’t preach. They simply spoke the truth to me. In doing that, they planted a seed in me for my future, and that seed would one day bear fruit. They knew that truth doesn’t need an audience to remain a truth. Maybe that’s our part in this: planting the seeds that will bear fruit somewhere in the future, and continuing to show up, even when it seems like nobody’s listening. I say all that to say this: Life has a way of teaching us to listen to those voices of experience and heed their advice. After all, they have been there before and found the ways that work and the ways that fail. I give you Proverbs 12:15 (ESV): “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” Let me ask you a question. Are there people in your life, whether family, friends, or acquaintances, whom you see going through something you could help them avoid, if only they would listen? Are they willing to listen? Or are they one of the many like in the song, where “there ain’t nobody listening, anyway”? Hey, this is Russ, and I’m still Living It Daily… See you next time… All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer. © October 06, 2026 – all rights reserved Rusty Norman, Podcastnorm Dot Com, and LivingItDaily.com All audio productions by www.podcastnorm.com and Pod Cast Norm Productions All music from TwoBuckThemes from Mike Stewart unless otherwise stated
