Presidential Listenings

Last updated on: October 23, 2012 at 1:00 am by Ragan Sutterfield

Presidential Listenings 2012-10-22T18:50:49-06:00 Ragan Sutterfield

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We don’t listen very much. We post, we tweet, we read and respond, but we don’t listen to other people and really try to understand. What if instead of a series of debates we had a series of presidential listenings where the task was for each side to gain from the other as full an understanding as possible of their position. Would we not know more at the end of such listenings than we do after the fairly empty rhetoric of the debates in which each candidate is trying to talk over and past the other?

We may not get national listenings instead of debates, but we can have them in our own life. Today find one or more people with whom you disagree on any subject. Ask that person to explain their position and understanding to you and do everything you can to listen. Ask only questions of clarification and leave the conversation at that. Maybe one time will turn into many on a host of issues, not just politics and religion, but even the playoffs.

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