Gangnam Style

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year or two you have probably heard of the song "Gangnam style" by Psy.  It's one of those one hit wonder types of songs and it is currently sweeping the nation.  It has become so popular in American culture that when we took our last trip to my hometown of West Palm Beach and attended an ice skating show at the South Florida Fair called "America on Ice" they actually had a segment called Gangnam style.  That right, in the middle of a show dedicated to American patriotism there was a song totally in South Korean.

Recently the "Gangnam style" craze has hit our family.  Our son and our daughter absolutely love that song.  During our trip to Florida the song must have been played one hundred and forty two times consecutively by all the nieces and nephews all while doing the cheesy dance that goes along with it.  You know the one; you cross your arms in front of you and skip like a schoolgirl in place.  It's amazing what catches on isn't it.

One of the hooks in the song is when Psy (the mastermind behind this craze) sings" Heeeeeeeeey sexy lady".  Now with the catchiness of the tune sometimes you overlook the fact that your six and seven year old are listening to those type of words.  That is until you as a parent hear them repeating those words.
One evening as we were driving to the store to pick up some things for a school project, we heard our son humming the infamous tune and then he began to sing the lyrics.  Except he was pronouncing it "sucksy" which of course upon first hearing makes you laugh because it's a funny mispronunciation. Then we asked what he said just to make sure we heard right. He confirmed that it was "sucksy" which makes it all the more funny.  The laughter however stops when he, out of nowhere, proclaims "I know what that word means".   Now in that instance as a parent your heart skips a beat because you know you didn't tell him what it means so you wonder where he heard it and how whoever it was that told your son this described the word.  It is your natural instinct to think the worst so you brace yourself and get ready to clarify whatever comes out of his mouth.  So we hesitantly asked "What does it mean?" and he says "It means sweaty". After a rush of relief, there was more laughter because we realized that in his mind the song has gone "Heeeeey sweaty lady".  So then the next question was "Who told you that?"  He answered "my friend at summer camp".

After the laughter subsided and we gently explained to him what the song was saying and what that phrase meant in context, I thought to myself how many times has that happened to us as adults?  Our son just took what his friend told him and believed it without thinking about it or looking in a dictionary (because kids do that, but you get the point).  In this instance it led to a funny moment, but for us as adults how many times in our search for truth have we stopped our quest because we heard something and just believed it.  How many times have we read something that sounded good and just stopped there.  We all, whether we admit it or not, are on a search for truth (or meaning) so as you share a laugh at the misinformation that our son received and believed, let me encourage you to pursue truth in all things.
Chris

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