Everyone has a desire to be heard. I’ve never met anyone who likes being ignored, and so it seems many of our social habits are born of the quest to obtain and maintain the attention of key people in our lives. Our survival often depends on being able to “stay on the radar.” In the material arena, we need to be valued by people who are sources if income. In the emotional realm, we seek to be valued and loved by the ones we love. These needs are basic, and essential.
It begs to ask the question: If this acknowledgment of the individual voice is so essential to our collective well being, then why are we all such bad listeners? I wonder what would happen if we spent less time making noise, and took just a little more time to stop and listen. What would we hear? How would we be different?
I know that the more I try to listen, the more I grow. Seems obvious on the surface, but as I reflect on my life I realize just how difficult it is…to REALLY listen; to put my own emotions and ideas aside, and just listen with an open mind and malleable heart. Transparency is tough.
There are so many ways to make ourselves heard now. Is there a price that we pay? I think true fulfillment comes from relationship, and if everyone is talking, no one is listening. So many of us mistake attention for connection, and a world full of attention seekers is a noisy world, where no one is heard.
Some of the wisest words in history were spoken quietly from modest lips. Modesty is rare in the American Idol-MySpace culture. I wonder what modesty is being spoken quietly under our barrage? Do we have the collective will to stop and listen?
Drew Schnurr