Listening Now Blog

Most of us have found ourselves interrupting the person we’re speaking with from time to time.  I’ve noticed it when couples tell stories to friends or visitors.   A lot of comedy is based on well-timed interruptions. I’ve been known to interrupt people I’m talking with (true, true).  We’ve all been told don’t interrupt – not interrupting [...]

I committed my own listening sin this week.  Someone I love phoned me just as I was in the middle of watching a segment on a TV show that I really wanted to see.  So instead of saying to the person on the phone “Hey, can I phone you back after this segment I really [...]

I stole a glance at my watch.  How much longer was she going to talk for, I wondered?  Not much longer, I hoped.  I got it the first time around, and we were deep into the third telling.  Guy was clearly an ignorant selfish blockhead.  As I’d heard it (many times in the one sitting), [...]

Distortion occurs quite frequently in human communication.  We hear a message, and instead of listening to all that is said, and only all that is said (“the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God”), we manipulate what we hear and twist it into something else.  Here are some reasons [...]