Listen (v.)- to hear something with thoughtful attention
This week I’ve realized I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I’m going to say. I even typed, deleted and re-typed that sentence four times. But it’s usually more important than that. I find myself thinking more about my responses than what others are trying to tell me. I guess in this age of carefully composed texts, tweets and Facebook posts, it can be tempting to script every single conversation.
Last week, a not-guilty verdict came down in my hometown of St. Louis affirming that we haven’t come very far in the past three years since Michael Brown was shot on the street in Ferguson. Immediately I found myself wanting to post something, to write something, to say something. But I realized I didn’t have any wise words or profound experience to contribute. But just because I didn’t have something to say didn’t mean there wasn’t a meaningful conversation happening.
Today, more than ever, the “talk less, smile more” strategy feels wrong. All the injustice makes me want to scream, but I realized my desire to sound intelligent, to show that I’m “woke,” was consuming a lot of time I could be spending actually understanding what was making me upset. I found the wise words I was looking for from individuals had been researching the causes of injustice and coming up with strategies that had the potential to change the future. I discovered the experiences that I was lacking were being articulated by others who’ve shared my city with me my whole life yet led a life so different from mine just because of what neighborhood they were born in or the color of their skin.
All I had to do was stop thinking about what I wanted to say and just
Listen.