Never miss a chance to listen.

Listening well is turning out to be harder to do than I expected. I'm just now realizing how many opportunities there are to listen, and just how little listening I really do. Usually I'm busy composing in my head what it is I'm going to add to the conversation.

I think this one resolution for 2006 may entail a revolution of sorts. How does one listen intelligently and cooperatively and insensely? What does listening entail? Obviously, a lot more than just hearing the sounds and parroting them back to the speaker.

And then there's listening to the radio and the TV. If I find myself really listening to the media, I begin to hear all sorts of logical fallacies, factual inconsistencies and downright idiotic statements. There's a lot of auditory garbage out there and not much in the way of intelligent response and riposte.

Thanks for listening.