@HomewithDean - Homily 1/24 - a podcast by KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)

Do you ever go quote hunting? Ever search for what other people who are smarter and wiser than you have said about something you’re interested in or wrestling with?

If there were no other arguments for the usefulness of the internet, quote hunting alone would entirely justify its’ existence. I quote hunt all the time. In part because it’s a great way to find new things to read and I read because I know for a fact that all sorts of people are smarter and wiser than me and I can use all the help I can get. But I also quote hunt because, for as much as I love to read, my feeble mind has always been most impacted not by whole books or chapters in a book or even a well assembled paragraph (something no one will ever accuse this paragraph of being), but rather my life has been most consistently moved by single sentences so artfully crafted and with such concise economy of words that they become the delivery devices of the kind of powerful truths that at times soothe me and at other times skewer me.

The right truth wrapped in the right sentence can be like a long awaited vaccine for a deadly disease. Such a small thing can get under your skin and save your life.

So this is my not so concise way of setting up that of late I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of listening, and how these days everyone feels the need to “find their voice” and be an “influencer” (a word I’m growing more and more jaded to by the day) but how it seems to me what’s missing in all this is not more talking at each other but more listening to each other. What seems to be in short supply is not self-expression but rather self-reflection.

So, in the spirit of quote hunting and the hope that something about listening gets under your skin, I’m going to be quiet now and instead share with you some thoughts from others far more worthy of being listened to than me.

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." —Stephen Covey

“Listening is being able to be changed by the other person." — Alan Alda

“You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time." — M. Scott Peck

"We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less." — Diogenes

“The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent'.” ? Alfred Brendel

“The first duty of love is to listen.” — Paul Tillich

“Never miss a good chance to shut up.” — Will Rogers

“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have rather talked.” — Mark Twain

And finally from Larry King, who passed away yesterday …

“I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.”

Thank you for listening. I hope you were listening. If you were, take whatever got under your skin, let it change you, and then go build yourself a beautiful life.

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