Listening With Our Hearts

LISTENING WITH OUR HEARTS

by Antonio C. Antonio

May 3, 2014

In this day and age of rapid development in tele-communications, we can only wonder how our forefathers utilized smoke signals and drums to convey messages across visual and earshot distances.  Today, aside from the regular mailing system, facsimile machines, electronic mail, etc., we also have the mighty cellular phone.  Some of the cellphones available in the market lately do not only have the SMS (short message service) and MMS (multi-media message service) but also internet access capabilities.  Using these lightweight gadgets, we could not only send alphabetical, graphic and picture messages but talk and see the person on the other end of the line as well.

Communication is so critically important in our lives that the absence or lack of it most certainly leads to disasters and confusion at the very least.  The following short story dwells, not only communications per se, but communicating with a purpose… communicating effectively… and, communicating intelligently.

It’s a Christmas eve dinner at the Dela Cruz Family home.  Papa Pedro and Mama Nena, their sons Pedrito and Junior, and daughter Nenita were all animatedly exchanging notes about the new stuff they bought from the mall earlier that day.  Junior, the youngest Dela Cruz, complained that his newly bought pair of blue jeans was a little long and needed to be trimmed by 2 inches.

After dinner, Junior left his denim pants on the sofa and went downstairs to see his playmates… Pedrito entered his room and started checking on Facebook… Nenita went to the family room to make telebabad… Papa Pedro went to the living room for his usual coffee and newpaper… and, Mama Nena went on to clear the table and wash the dishes.

Thirty minutes passed and Papa Pedro, having finished his coffee and reading his newspaper, saw Junior’s pants, cut-off 2 inches and retired to the master’s bedroom to sleep.  Pedrito got out of his room for a drink and, on his way to the fridge, saw Junior’s pants and remembering his younger brother’s request, cut 2 inches off the pants.  Nenita finally ran out of things to talk about on the phone, got out of the family room, saw Junior’s pants on the sofa… cut 2 inches more.  As if the irony wouldn’t end… when Mama Nena finished tidying-up the kitchen, she proceeded to the living room and do her youngest son his favor.  Needless to say, the story ended in a disaster… and Junior cried a bucket-full of tears that night.

Everyone would agree that the Dela Cruz Family members meant well for little Junior.  However, their failure to communicate with each other in a seemingly simple undertaking proved to be a very painful experience, not only for Junior but, for the rest of the family as well. 

This sort of experience can also happen to us.  We live in a community of people we need to interact and communicate with on a daily basis.  The Filipino social structure is even more challenging because of the extended and expanded family ties we have.  We can always choose our friends but not our family and relatives.  There is no doubt though that all of us mean well and no one will deliberately mean harm to anyone under normal circumstances.  But ideal human interaction entails communication… effective communications.  But do we really know what communications is?

It has been said that communications is not the art of talking but the art of listening.  Effective communications, however, is not limited to listening alone… but, rather, listening with our hearts.

Just my little thoughts…