The Listenary

The reasons I teach listening skills are bigger than any answer, so here are several answers.

Why do I listen?

A. I want to be a breath of fresh air, a wind beneath your wings, a break in your storm, a waterdrop in your desert, a light in your night, a jack between your bars.

Well, alright, that’s the answer of the dreamer in me, the intuitive. I’ll try again.

So why do I care about listening?

B. I want to keep America free for the generations to follow.

Some children—and adults, too—who have no one to listen to them find ways to act out and get attention. The others repress the need to be heard and die off young, leaving the world to those who do "get it off their chests" by acting out. Then, in order to keep the country safe, we make laws, more and more laws, to protect ourselves from the acting out. The further problem is that more and more laws, while protecting us, also limit our freedoms.

That’s the answer of the logician in me. There is more.

Well, what is the reason I teach listening?

C. I want to feel heard! I want to gather into my circle of acquaintances many people who care as I do about practicing calm availability when with others in conversation. I want to be a part of a community known for its listening.

That’s probably the answer of the extrovert in me.

Some discription that pulls all those answers together approximates the reasons I do what I do.