[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo&hl=en&w=425&h=355]
"To listen fully means to payclose attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not
only to the 'music,' but to the essence of the person speaking. You
listen not only for what someone knows, but for what he or she is. Ears
operate at the speed of sound, which is far slower than the speed of
light the eyes take in. Generative listening is the art of developing
deeper silences in yourself, so you can slow our mind’s hearing to your
ears’ natural speed, and hear beneath the words to their meaning."— Peter Senge
A student of mine sent me this.
I stopped at a gas station yesterday to put some gold in my tank. (At $4.04 a gallon, it no longer feels like gas we are putting in our cars). I stepped inside to pick up some water for the ride home. Behind the counter, the impeccably dressed young man was listening to some music and reading. I wandered around the market for a few minutes, grabbed a bottle of water and a few Mike and Ike's to tide me over and headed to the counter. What was he listening to? I stood there for a few moments and engaged what is left of Mr. Opdike, my high school Spanish teacher's influence on me. Surprisingly, I could make out a few words. Pretty Cool. I glanced over at the book he put down on the counter. The Bible.
We do not notice things that we expect to see. We notice what is unusual, what surprises us, what we do not expect. We resist the temptation to make judgments, to criticize, to put down what we do not understand.
There was no note attached to this video. Just the link. I clicked the link as you did just now and I watched. And then I watched again. And then I watched a third time. Curiosity got the better of me and I "googled" the song. I found the artist and I read about what he had done.
This morning I played this for my thirteen year old. "What is that?" he asked.
"It's something one of my students sent me." And then I proceeded to tell him what I had learned.
"I like it. It's pretty catchy. It kind of grows on you. And the special effects are pretty cool too."
Go ahead, try it again. My son is right. It grows on you.