You might pass by the title in your news feed (which is a thing that can be associated to the act of hearing), but amping up an interest to read more about this blog makes you “listen” to me. (Aba, si Tim ba ito?!)
Hello. 🙂
Well let’s cut to the chase now.
Listening is a lot different from hearing. While hearing only involves the capacity to perceive audibly, listening requires us to choose according to our preferences of what we want to put not only in our ears, but also in the processing mechanisms of our inner selves. We cannot filter what we hear elsewhere, but listening takes into the scene as we discern and focus on the more interesting objects our naked ears could ever perceive. Simply put, listening is harder than hearing.
We can “hear” people by simply looking at them, and we “listen” as we get to know them better by sparking either friendly or sarcastic conversations. And like what my loving, godly parents advises me about choosing my friends wisely, “listening” to a person, obviously, shows that you are interested with that person. You wouldn’t want to misspend your precious time with raucous people who doesn’t deserve listening to. You wouldn’t give away your four minutes to a typical four-minute pop song which doesn’t earn an engagement to listen to even as early as its staid intro. And as each of us is dictated by the kind of community we belong to, our educational backgrounds/societal statuses always tend to affect the way we listen. TAKE NOTE, this pays a lot to a peace-on-earth-goodwill-towards-men advocacy. Subtle yet very evident, we build barriers among those who cannot, in one way or another, cope up on our standards of relationship-building. There is somehow an unspoken marginalization between the “good” and the “bad”, the “rich” and the “poor”, the “wise” and the “fool”, the “pro” and the “novice”, etc. ADMIT IT FOLKS (Don’t worry, I count myself as one of those who you know what I mean are)– we always incline to consider ourselves as one of those in the former adjectives of each of the comparisons. Upon thinking like that, we start to deconstruct the mere fact that this world is perfect– the way it is by its diversity and manifoldness, through labelling ourselves as the same. I mean, who would be willing to be tagged as “bad”? As “poor”? As “fool”? And how come we got into this contention anyway? Would you still be interested to “listen”?
If you who reads this right now are a writer, you could probably tell to yourself that I am not like you. See? That’s the problem itself.
“What’s your point, Tim?”
Well, my point is, listening, in a general sense, is not only by the ears and mind (and heart). It could also be in the face of reading Da Vinci Code, knowing your enemies in a friendly approach (loving them!), eating adobong palaka for the first time, or even touching the dirtiest thing imaginable, say, tae. (Sarap ‘no?)
You get it? It is having a broader perspective of life.
We have zillions of things to learn around us. Albert Einstein, if he’s still alive, would still might discover more about his theories. Michael Jordan became so great and legendary because he had always submitted to his coach. Jesus Christ, who is the Lord and Savior, got the nerve and had managed to wash the feet of His disciples because He wanted them to learn!
Everyday gives us doors to listen. The only thing we need is an empty, lowly self, set to learn new things from others, from nature, from good/bad experiences, and even from self. Most importantly from God. Let us not fiddle away our time blaming and derogating what we think should be treated enough that way.
Give up yourself for the sake of learning. Listen.
Spoken Thoughts, Silent Laughs 