Monday, July 28, 2008

It isn't easy to listen

Admittedly it isn't easy to listen, and the odds are against us. We have to listen to people whose thoughts are totally disorganized, to people who do not look at us while they are speaking, to people who keep saying "Do you see? Do you see?" when we not only see but are ten minutes ahead of them and have already smelled out the denouement, to people who answer our questions before we ask them ( "Oh," you ask, "why do I thin this? Well I'll tell you why I think this--"), to people who are saying one thing and meaning another, to people who speak in pious platitudes and vague spiritual generalities without ever getting down to cases, to people who speak so low or so rapidly that we can only guess what they're saying--No it isn't easy to listen.--Ethel Barrett

1:19 You have knowledge of this, dear brothers. But let every man be quick in hearing, slow in words, slow to get angry;


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