Pam and I like to go to church Friday evenings, in part to recover from the week, and because our church is less crowded, calmer than on Sundays. But lately, since my son Cody attends on Sundays, I’ve been returning to hang out with him.

Occasionally, the pastor tosses in something new on Sunday, but most of the message is the same as Friday’s. Which has led to a solution of a problem of mine. The problem is, when I listen to a sermon or a lecture or a poem or song or whatever, a line or idea grabs me and I follow it, and often get lost and miss the next part of whatever.

What I’ve discovered is, knowing I’ll be listening twice allows my mind to work in two different ways. On Fridays, I’m like a dutiful student, filling in the blanks on the outline, taking in the message for what it is, not what my wandering mind will make of it. On Sundays, I trip out and let lines or ideas in the message take me wherever, which usually leads to my scribbling notes about stories or other projects of mine.

Which in turn leads to a general principle I’ll try applying elsewhere. Do it twice, once studiously, once tripping out. My neighbor Ellen would call this using the left brain once, and the right brain once.

Of course, the sermon, song, lecture or whatever needs to be thoughtful enough to engage us twice. Ed Noble’s sermons (under Archives at www.journeycom.org) have worked well for me.

If I’d discovered this principle while in college, I could’ve been a dutiful student in class while taping the lecture, tripped out at home while listening to the tape, become a Fullbright scholar, and then run for President.