Are we, any of us, REALLY listening to each other?
 
          I think I can say with some confidence that I personally DO try. (mostly)
 
          I ain't no special guru of ever listening ear of coarse, but I do try and stop to consider myself every now and then, about how well I'm interacting with the other people around me. I listen, but then I decide that I heard something else other then what they said instead. Not that I’m purposely defaulting the speakers message in any way, not knowingly at least, but somehow I always end up automatically thinking my way around the person anyway, instinctually trying to get between all the lines. Now I know that this is a very bad habit, and so if I’m lucky enough to have a moment of spot-checking clarity during my interaction with someone, I can stop myself, take a few mental snaps, and FORCE myself to see the whole message at it’s base, face value. This is not always easy for me, with my flaky, wandering mind, and always there’s the ego whenever a comment or an attitude is directed specifically at me, but I do I try.
 
          Now If I think I’ve then successfully listened to exactly what the other person has tried to tell me, and notwithstanding all the other bad habits of impatience when I can’t wait till they "get" what I want to say, intolerance when I just won’t or can't open my mind up to something I do not understand, stubbornness when I won’t let go of a notion or a frame of one-track mind, judgment when I let my ego get away with feeling somehow superior in knowledge or moral integrity, plain stupid clumsiness when I take for granted the very important balance between reading around the person and actually concentrating an effort at READING the words in front of me, and assumptions that just simply suck, I then try and give a carefully considered answer.
 
          Or do I? Sometimes I believe I’m flexing my mental might, or so I’m told sometimes that that’s what I’m unsuccessfully trying to do, but that’s only because some people are offended by my mental flexing hobby. I LIKE to exercise my mind. Maybe I AM dumber then toast, but I can only go by how I feel myself inside, and I feel that though my cognitive focus is sometimes a little over the top �?whatever that means �?it seems just fine to me. Sometimes I believe I’m trying to commit some brutal warlike act of bubble popping fury, but that’s only because I’m emotionally retarded, and a nut, giving off spasms of passion in bursting moments here and there, while remaining totally dim sometimes in untimely moments around other things that I alone don’t seem to understand. That’s only because I did way too many drugs in my life, and I’m not really sure now if I even started with a full deck anyway in the first place, however I really believe I try and stay as positive as any other person might try in my similar life circumstances, and so I’m alright with that. Like spilt milk: It’s my bed, and I willingly made it this way. Sometimes my ego actually takes over, when an old sore spot gets re-rubbed over for instance, weather by accident or on purpose, weather innocent bystander or ass-hole, I sometimes unleash all the dogs. Sometimes I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, but I’m OK with that too �?I also like to let the Universe guide me in all my Earthly deeds. I Know I’m not very significant or important, and so I don’t really try to be, but I like it when people seem to consider my words with a little measure of intelligence, because I feel as if I’ve put at least a little measure of something like that into them, and by this I mean simple civil respect for a fellow human babbling. No one can be forced to hear what they do not want to hear, and on the other side of the coin I might try to take some responsibility myself in my half of any miscommunication, for it is also the voice that can not be forced to say what it is simply unable to say.
 
          Although, after all, if I had truly listened from the beginning, I would probably not have much to say afterwards, unless I thought I could contribute in some way, of if I thought I saw a flaw in the logic, or if it just rubbed me the wrong way, or any number of other ego related or unrelated possibilities I can’t think of right now, which would only be necessary to justify my criticisms, my dismissals, my corrections, and all of my overriding, insensitive, and just plain pompously sounding tones.
 
          Or at least I think that’s what I do...
 
          If it’s all about me, then I don’t get it. Why would I do all this by myself just for me? I’d like to share if I may, and damn you if you think otherwise, because I really only care what nice people think anyway, but I don’t care if anyone knows I don’t like them, as I’m sure any will oblige me with the same feelings in the same way. As we all begin in birth, it is always about us, but from our beginnings I see all of us growing in another light. Won't you share some of your light with me now too?
 
          I don’t remember from which one of my favourite quotes I always make this up, or from whom, (a French guy I think), but I thought the phraseology of it was put so well that it just stuck in my head, and I like to use it often for illustration, and to give better philosophical conveyance of what I’m trying to say. I’ve said it in so many different ways already�?“Let the voice within your voice speak only to the ear within my ear, and let the ear within my ear hear you, and listen, and so also let the voice within my voice speak only to the ear within your ear, and let the ear with your ear hear me, and let it also listen.�?BR> 
          Is anyone really listening out there?