Listening Revisited

Sundry Bits and Pieces Listening Revisited November 11, 2002

Listening revisited, as if enough had been said. In thinking about listening and why we do it so poorly a couple of ideas occurred to me. First, if I am paying attention to how well I am listening, I am not listening and the whole exercise is about me. Secondly, if I am waiting for you to finish something and you don’t do it as quickly as I might like, I get impatient. Again, I am the subject of the exercise. In neither of these cases am I giving to you the attention you deserve and the respect you want. As far as that goes, I want you to listen to me with rapt attention because what I have to say is very important. However, for me to do that for you is hard. A third thought, and perhaps the most important, is that listening is the gift you give to me as I talk to myself in your presence. Listening is a gift. The gift of love is that which comes to you as appreciation for you and your affairs. A survey of some sort purposed to find out what people wanted most from their family and friends. The assumption was that “love” would top the list, but not so. The winner by a significant margin, was that what people really want is “appreciation.” Interestingly, if I appreciate you, you will interpret what I do as love. Neat huh? So folks, listen up.