A Lesson in Three Parts… Part One

Not Listening!

I have a bad habit. It’s not necessarily that it’s bad for me, as much as it is bad to me, but that’s really for you to decide.

You see, I have this automatic thing I do when speaking with people who annoy me. When they say something, I give an encouraging, “mm hmm” and a little head nod that allows them to believe that they can continue, and that I like what they have to say. But I don’t.

So I’m eternally stuck in a mode where I have to listen to people I don’t like, talk about things that I don’t care about. And it would be one thing if I just listened, but sometimes –most times- I include my own personal commentary, and I have no idea why.

What makes me this way? When did I find this acceptable? Is it my incessant need for people to listen to me brought to life by the belief that if I listen to them they will do the same?

Yeah, that’s probably it, but it never works that way. For I listen, and I converse, yet when I talk I get cut off or ignored. So why don’t I become a raging psycho and never listen to anyone ever again?

Cause while I hate my habit, it makes for some darn good story telling, of whose benefits you reap.

At least that’s the idea. The following are examples, not of these conversations, but of how it is when I am heard, and for extended lengths of time...