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About a Month of Listening
Written by Nathan on January 31, 2009 at 12:05 pm from A Month of Listening.
Written by Nathan on January 31, 2009 at 12:05 pm from A Month of Listening.
With a Month of Resolve behind me, where do I go? Do I try to run three miles faster than Obama? Based on my run today, perhaps I should just aim for being faster than Clinton. I suppose I could move to anaerobic workouts and see how many pushups I can do in month.
But this Year of Months project is about more than physical well-being. It’s about reclaiming life and this month will mark a major life change - the birth of a new baby for my wife and I.
Birth is a wonderful and crazy process, beyond just the biological event. A few blocks from our home is the birthing center where my wife will (hopefully) give birth to a healthy babe in a week or three. She’s met with her midwife every week or two for nine month. Her midwife will bear the responsibility of preparing us for, and guiding Jenn through, delivery. Hers will be the first hands to hold our new child, and a face forever tied to the start of this new life.
But despite her pivotal role in our lives, I know almost nothing about Jenn’s midwife. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized there are many people I interact with, depend on, and in some cases even care a great deal about whom I do not know as well as I ought. There are many reasons for this—time may be an issue, or perhaps the transactional nature of relationships nowadays. From all the reasons I’ve pondered the most striking is that so often I don’t listen to others often enough.
So for the month of February each day I’m going to rectify some small part of my relational dis-functionality. For a few minutes, once a day, I’ll sit down with someone who has impact on my life in some way and interview them. I’ll record the audio, take a photo and post the two together. Hopefully through listening I can better know my neighbors, and maybe relearn what it means to know someone.
I think you’ve come up with another great resolution. I hope that you’ll be able to form stronger bonds with the different people in your life. I will definitely keep this in mind as I interact with my friends, family and acquaintances.
That’s a beautiful idea, Nathan! [And if you want someone you don't know, my number is in any email I've sent.
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Geof, that’s a fascinating idea. I have 10-15 listening sessions planned out, but I’m waiting until next week to plan out the other sessions. Let me see how the first few go before I decide if I have the chops to interview someone over the phone, whom I’ve never had an in-person conversation with before.
[...] Year of Months // January: A Month of Resolve -or- 3 Miles a Day » About a Month of Listening (tags: gfmorris_comment) [...]
That wouldn’t be awkward at all.
But it could be fun. [And we might could do it over Skype and use local mics, because I have a mic.]
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