Listening
I experienced a really nice moment today when we went out to PURITY ICE CREAM in Ithaca after our designer-director fellowship meeting.
We were hanging out with our deaf girl Annie and really having a blast. She is either only partially deaf or a SUPERB lipreader (I think it's mostly the latter) so she left her interpretters and hung out with us. We were having such a great conversation and being FULLY engaged in what everyone was saying because you tend to do that when someone is reading your lips. You make eye contact, stay fully focussed and exaggerate your expressions.
It's then that I realized that we humans hardly ever do this anymore in America. I mean we do.. but oftentimes we're talking to each other between text messaging or rummaging through our purses half listening, caught up in ourselves and our own dramas.
You can't be caught up in yourself when conversing with the deaf. You have to be fully present.
It was such a ...HUMAN experience. I feel like being in Ithaca and having these amazing experiences is really helping me figure out deep down who I am and how I would like to observe the world. But this one experience is standing out to me because I feel like.. I should remember this and take pains to not get caught up too much in technology or my own crazy life and schedule.
I need to leave time to listen..