Ecosymbolism The Voice and the Listener

Ecosymbolism In The Voice and the Listener

As we enter this immense library of human symbols, we should remember that having a voice does not necessarily mean that we have created a dialogue.

We often think that communication belongs to the person who is speaking.

But perhaps the greater power belongs to the person who is listening.

The speaker expresses what is already within the mind. The listener receives something that was not there before.

Listening gives us access to information.

It allows another human being to reveal an idea, an experience, a discovery, a fear, an intention or a possibility that was previously unknown to us.

And within the unknown may be something extraordinary.

A solution.

A warning.

A question we had never considered.

A different way of seeing what we believed we already understood.

To listen does not mean to agree. It means to allow ourselves to know that something exists before deciding what we think about it.

This is why dialogue requires more than voices.

It requires ears.

The person speaking may communicate knowledge, but the person listening is the one who has the opportunity to learn.

And when the listener responds, the roles reverse.

The speaker becomes the listener.

The listener becomes the speaker.

Information travels in both directions, and through that exchange something neither person possessed before may emerge.

That is dialogue.

That is echo.

And that is how the unknown enters the library and becomes available to humanity.