Humanity Would Be Great If It Wasn’t For All The People...
Today’s little bit of nowhere was going to chronicle the misadventures of me vs. a 4 month-old baby’s soiled diapers, which would have involved a lot of remarks along the lines of “Breathe through the nose!” and “What the hell did he eat? This stuff looks like tapioca pudding gone horribly awry!”
However, recent events over the past few days have prompted something along a more serious, if not potentially damning, observation that has sadly vindicated itself once again.
Humanity would be great if it wasn’t for all the people.
It is something that can be said by any person at any given time in their life, at any given place in the world. It can be spoken of friend and family alike. And more often than not it has such destructive power that it can bring down the strong of heart, and bring those already struggling to their grave.
There are names I could give and post here, and with the written word eviscerate them in public before both peers and strangers, but admittedly that would be rather petty of me. So instead I hope my intimations will be enough to satisfy the curious, and provoke the curious to think.
Sometimes I think humanity’s greatest problem is that everyone wants to be right, everyone wants to be infallible, and everyone simply has to have the decisive final word on any matter. Whether or not this is the cause or a mere symptom can be debated amongst those who read and wish to pursue the quandary further.
For me, I believe that our arrogance, as a whole or as individuals, is a symptom. The cause is that in today’s world, very few people know what it means to listen. True communication depends upon listening as much as speaking, and it is no mere “I heard the words you said.”
Listening in its truest form is hearing what was said by someone else, and then taking those words into account with every little nuance and gesture they have made, and then taking stock of how they see the world from their eyes, not yours. We cannot truly listen if we do not try to understand.
The arrogance comes from mistakenly believing that we are the ones who understand and they do not, that before the conversation has come to a close we are right and they are not, and if they cannot see it our way, they are stubborn, insensitive and have wronged us.
We make martyrs of ourselves, and cry foul when we are the ones who are the offenders, and in the end it will come as a great shock to learn that for all our wonderful words, for all our magnificent arguments, we deserve to be crucified. Pride serves only itself, and it is a cruel, abusive master. In the end it will devour the very person who serves to feed it.
Life is filled with people who talk. People who rant. People who scream. Only when we take the time to listen carefully to them can we understand where not only their own insecurities and faults lay, but ours as well. Only by listening can we discern whether or not they are worth listening to further, or if they should be ignored and allowed to wallow in the vengeance that awaits them.
In the end, what you’re reading are only words. You may take some heed, or you may ignore them, or you may take offence at them. At the very least I hope they got you thinking, and ideally daring to face the darkness without yourself.
Are you listening? Or are you merely hearing a buzz in your ears?
posted by Phillip at 7:00 PM
