tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25709815.post8997921243728950794..comments2008-11-14T10:59:37.743-08:00MaryHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06187208086221514973noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25709815.post-39576770545464734142008-11-14T10:59:00.000-08:002008-11-14T10:59:00.000-08:00Excellent point Emanon. I think the knee jerk reaction is to be critical, especially in the blog environment. As Bishop Sheen once said, "win an argument lose a soul".<BR/><BR/><I>Mea culpa!</I><BR/><BR/>Debate and argument are mostly hopeless anyway. John Henry Newman said that men are governed by their sympathies rather than by argument and logic, which means even from a purely practical point-of-view listening makes sense.TShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17118362963139092279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25709815.post-37527236624107503382008-11-13T09:41:00.000-08:002008-11-13T09:41:00.000-08:00Well said, Mary. If we are too busy listening to ourselves, how can we truly listen to another.emanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02644467794286481670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25709815.post-84960157724546689132008-11-13T08:38:00.000-08:002008-11-13T08:38:00.000-08:00Good Morning emanon, <BR/>I think people -including me sometimes - are afraid of listening to others. If we let them say all the things they say that we disagree with we sometimes feel like we are a party to it - somehow by listening we are allowing or permitting a view that we think is wrong. So we shut people out. Another thing that happens, imho, is that we want so much to change the world - to *do* something about so many of the horrible things we see and the only thing we can do is to talk until we're blue in the face. So, sometimes I just let people go on and on about politics to let them have the satisfaction that they *did* something to conquer the world.MaryHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06187208086221514973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25709815.post-31969982708539568202008-11-12T10:35:00.000-08:002008-11-12T10:35:00.000-08:00Ha! I liked your quote the best, Mary! Though, sorry to say, most of the others did not seem too interested in:<BR/><BR/><I>"This is involves such 'nasty' things as actually listening to one another, thinking, researching, building community, and putting yourself out there both in both <B>dialogue</B> and action."</I> <BR/><BR/>More interested, perhaps, in monologue than dialogue...emanonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02644467794286481670noreply@blogger.com