To be Understood, Not to Understand

Side By Side

I used to be a sponge.

I mean, I used to be interested in anything and everything and would ask my questions, however silly they are.  I used to love to listen and would look with awe and wonder at the speaker, a sponge, taking in everything, what is being said, what is not being said, what I felt, what the speaker would want me to feel .

I used to be interested in stories and explanations and people.

But time intervened and with knowledge came… disinterest.

I formed conclusions before I was supposed to form conclusions, believed what I wanted to believe, heard what I wanted to hear, tuned out.

I decided some people are not worth listening to.

I started to speak, and to explain, I wanted to be heard.  To be thought of as knowledgeable, as funny, as intelligent, as someone who can have a worthwhile contribution to the conversation.

Oddly, I learned nothing this way.  And lost my powers of observation, deep empathy, connection to the language of the unuttered.

I want to be a sponge again.

Because sometimes people just want someone to listen.

And sometimes the din of clarity can best be heard through incessant, trivial, empty babble.

Don’t ask me how.

To muster inner enthusiasm, to awaken the desire to want to know people, to listen to them again, be interested, instead of wanting to be interesting.

To observe, have unquenchable thirst, to listen, to want to understand.

Again.

Article by Issa.  Art by D. Copyright 2010.
Website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
Email: issa@youwanttoberich.com

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