There is a particular English Patient Brother JN among us, who was feeling unnecessarily stressed out about studying. So when his peer brothers organized a peer road trip, he planned on taking his books with him so that he can study. His peer brothers balked at the idea and told him, “No textbooks on this trip!” And they threatened brother JN with physical harm if he were to bring any textbooks on the trip.
So Brother JN decided that he would get around this rule by recording himself reading the textbook, and then listen to the mp3 on the road. That way, he could get his studying done, AND he won’t even get carsick.
When the road trip started, Brother JN turned on his mp3 player and started listening to himself reading. While he listened, he had a particular expression on his face, like he’s really concentrating. After about 30 minutes of this, Brother JN angrily took off his headset and exclaimed, “Man! I can’t understand myself!”
3 comments:
There are actually some wrong details in this story. It was actually a road trip with the senior brothers in his K-group, along with their leaders, and they were going to places like Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon. As they were preparing for the trip, one of brother JN's peers warned him not to bring books - while another peer came to his defense and said - "C'mon - even James knows that you aren't supposed to bring books on a road trip like this!" To that, brother JN exclaimed, "Are you crazy? It's a week long - of course I'm going to bring my books!" I'm sure there was much physical harm threatened, but I heard that the clincher was when JN's leader told him that any books he brought would be fuel for the campfire.
Another detail that I'm not 100% sure of (maybe someone who went on the trip can confirm) is that JN did not only listen to his recording for 30 minutes - it was only after they arrived at their destination in Utah that he defeatedly took his headphones off and said, "Aigo. I can't even understand myself."
thank you David for the clarifications.
David was absolutely right. I think that ride was at least 2, 3 hours long. While others were talking, eating, and enjoying fellowship, brother JN stared down the whole time, without a word, with eyebrows tightly locked, and a face of determination.
This story was widely known as the textbook story that in many ways, depicts so perfectly the unique character of Brother JN.
Brother JN, the slightly off details should suggest that the hands of your peers were clean from submitting this story!
your peers hands may be clean from submitting the story, but it doesn't mean that they didn't speak of the story to others who may have told other and allowed it to morph into what lives on disgracepoint today. :)
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