Do You Have A ‘Useless Skill’?

I've always preferred listening to watching. Even in church, I bow my head for the entire service, and listen to the minister rather than watch. Maybe I was afraid of being distracted by any visuals that caught my eye. But the message still sticks.

I've been attentively listening to voices, specifically, since I was a young child. I remember watching television with my father on many occasions, and when the commercials came on, he would more often than not tilt his head and direct his gaze to no specific point in space. I knew he was listening to the voice that was narrating the advertisements.

Even to this day, I can tell when he figures out who's doing the talking. He'll ease back into rocking his La-Z-Boy with a contented smile on his face, and calmly reveal it was Jeff Bridges narrating that Duracell commercial, or Michael Douglas as the man who introduces the NBC Nightly News anchor.

Growing up, I would join in this game of figuring out who the face behind the voice is. I've become quite good at it, too. The star of the Academy Award-winning film Whiplash, J.K. Simmons, is the voice of the yellow peanut M&M in their advertisements. Kevin Spacey voices the Honda commercials.

I love the challenge of picking out the voices, but I have yet to come up with a practical application for it! It's starting to drive me crazy! The process is fun and challenging to the mind at times, but if I were to find a good use for this God-given ability, I am left without much of an answer.

So how about you? Do you have a skill or a talent that you don't think is very productive but you enjoy anyway?