Listen Completely

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
― Ernest Hemingway

 

Tonight I had reason to think and write out a few principles of what listening to someone means to me and I thought it would make a decent posting.

Debate rather than dialogue… do we debate each other or do we champion the debate of ideas… thesis and antithesis bringing us to a synthesis..which becomes in turn a new synthesis…

Do we identify so much with our beliefs and hold so rigidly to them that we are unable to separate an attack on something we think from an attack on our being?if greater understanding is not our goal, than why are we here? This definition  of  debate as between people rather than ideas, an important distinction and tends to be a misapprehension fostered by American politics,

What if when  we listen to each other and to ourselves, and we hear something that causes an emotional reaction, we look at why rather than assume ill intention or incorrectness on the other persons part? Can we learn to listen  not just to words but to intent.What if the meat of the issue involves looking at your own reaction to what someone is saying? Listen to the space between their words and their phrasing. Do you listen to answer or do you listen to understand?
I know I would rather be incorrect and gain new insight and growth rather than be right and grow stagnant in my correctness.
Blessings,

 

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Valhalla AwaitsValhalla Awaits by G A Rosenberg

 

Purple SparksPurple Sparks by G A Rosenberg