tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post8262865459612029564..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: Proposal for a National Day of ListeningLKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-88505420687873094522012-05-08T22:03:31.734-05:002012-05-08T22:03:31.734-05:00Well, I'm pretty hard of listening, so I'm...Well, I'm pretty hard of listening, so I'm not so sure. Wha'd you say? :-)<br />Great idea, Leroy!Antonkjacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01734526091623931154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-42780815090784076562012-05-06T20:33:02.613-05:002012-05-06T20:33:02.613-05:00I much appreciate these significant comments by Th...I much appreciate these significant comments by Thinking Friend David, who is, I am happy to say from personal knowledge, a good listener.<br /><br />I also like what a Thinking Friend in California wrote: "We ALL should listen more. In fact, I try to listen 70% and talk 30%." That's a good goal, it seems to me, although I don't know many people who seem to be able even to come close to that ratio.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-18360883659343444552012-05-06T13:47:56.694-05:002012-05-06T13:47:56.694-05:00Great idea! Like prayer and reason, however, list...Great idea! Like prayer and reason, however, listening is something we need to learn to do everyday. I am saddened sometimes when I am with a person for several hours and upon leaving realize that I have heard all about that person and have shared very little about myself. It is my obligation to be more assertive at times, but I also believe we need to teach listening and nurture good listening skills.<br /><br />The first act of love is to listen.<br /><br />The most important skill of leadership is listening.<br /><br />DavidHumanagendahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06340818687734508025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-86493119598940563782012-05-05T20:08:33.485-05:002012-05-05T20:08:33.485-05:00Thinking Friend Truett Baker, who is a Baptist min...Thinking Friend Truett Baker, who is a Baptist minister in Arizona (and formerly pastor of my home church in MO), sent me an e-mail with the following comments, which I share with his permission.<br /><br />"This is an idea I have difficulty getting my mind around, but there is no doubt that most of us are weak when it comes to the art of listening. Cannot prayer also include listening and reason? I can just imagine the look of the faces of Southern Baptists who are confronted with this idea!<br /><br />"Keep on thinking—it is refreshing to my thirsty soul."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-89190188755146312022012-05-05T11:07:05.816-05:002012-05-05T11:07:05.816-05:00Thinking Friend Vicki Price, whom I first met in J...Thinking Friend Vicki Price, whom I first met in Japan in 1966 and who now lives in Texas, sent the following comments, which I post here with her permission:<br /><br />"It seems to me that your rationale for the Day of Listening is quite sound. I would anticipate that proponents of the Day of Prayer may object, preferring to retain the word prayer. I wonder if Day of Reflection (which may or may not be prayer and may or may not be based on reason/faith) would serve the same purpose. Some might ask, "Listening to/for what?" as it is a bit vague. I agree that it would be good to find some label that all could embrace and that doesn't pit one group against others."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-70392647130974650992012-05-05T10:04:57.132-05:002012-05-05T10:04:57.132-05:00Just received (by e-mail) from an esteemed Thinkin...Just received (by e-mail) from an esteemed Thinking Friend in Kentucky:<br /><br />"Amen! A splendid proposal, Leroy! Listening is what prayer is, so you'd be observing a Day of Prayer as well."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-35850013647935874782012-05-05T08:14:55.157-05:002012-05-05T08:14:55.157-05:00MPH, thanks for listening to what I said about lis...MPH, thanks for listening to what I said about listening and then for responding so I could listen to what you had to say.<br /><br />Listening can and does take place without response, but listening cannot occur without someone speaking.<br /><br />My proposal that we listen to one another is based on the idea that we listen first (to God or Reason or whatever) and then we share what we have heard. In that sense, I would like to think that listening informs communication and, thereby, mutual understanding.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-66146613321847605722012-05-05T07:56:23.574-05:002012-05-05T07:56:23.574-05:00It's a wonderful irony, Leroy, to request resp...It's a wonderful irony, Leroy, to request responses to a blog that calls for listening. It really is as though listening itself is incomplete without response, isn't it? I mean, how else would we know someone was listening if he or she did not respond? And so, what it seems you mean by a national day of listening is really a national day of communication. <br /><br />Unless, what you're really calling for is a national day of silence in which no one is speaking. This is not a bad idea, either. I have often referred to "Horne's doctrine of 'shut-up.'" When we shut up we might do so for many reasons, though: to listen, is one; but also, frankly, to acknowledge that talk is really, really cheap. Everyone speaks without communication, so that much of the time talking is simply a waste of energy and good thought.<br /><br />And since so many people are speaking anyway, a national day of reason and/or prayer would at least accomplish one end of seasoning all of this talk with forethought. Whether from reason or prayer, people would be speaking what they have either thought about or prayed about in advance. At the very least the talk would be more interesting than the drone of meaningless blather (which is increasingly characterizing our public political and economic debates). At most, talk could facilitate communication by providing words and ideas that make us want to communicate.MPHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02521242032834115882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-46117033978992433262012-05-05T06:29:13.855-05:002012-05-05T06:29:13.855-05:00Listening (in the sense of understanding beyond th...Listening (in the sense of understanding beyond the physical reception of sound waves) is a metaphysical concept beyond the grasp of most Americans who have been indoctrinated in the concept of individualism.Clif Hostetlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09192652526880912362noreply@blogger.com