There seems to be a very basic problem in our society today, and that is our ability to listen to each other. I chose the graphic above for this post because it reminded me of the basset hound who was my “shadow” for ten years of my life. She was a 45 lb sweetie pie who thought she was a lapdog. But the picture also infers that maybe we just need bigger ears to be able to listen better. 🙃

Getting down to a more serious level, the basic problem is that most of us, including me, have our own agenda when it comes to conversations. We are just too busy trying to figure out what we will say when it comes our time to talk, to be able to really listen to the other person.

We must realize that we are all filled with our own biases and prejudices that shape our view of the world. Rather than engage in the mutual pursuit of truth, we are more interested in pushing our opinion and influence onto others. This prevents us from actually hearing what the other person is trying to tell us. We too often block out other perspectives and instead, just have a conversation with ourselves.

I think this may be one of the fundamental reasons we are so disconnected right now. We just need to be better listeners and to really try to understand why people have views that are quite different from our own. Until we can come to that understanding it will always be an us-vs-them world. I wish I know how to fix this on a corporate level, but maybe I should just concentrate on fixing it at a very personal level.

I am not the only person who is deaf in this world. In fact, almost all of us are deaf at in one sense or another.

LISTEN