I used to believe people bloom from each other
by hearing different perspectives.

Gathering glimpses
of the same world
held in different light.

Seeing how someone else
connects the puzzle pieces
into their reality.

Seeking other ways
without losing your own.
Just to inspire.

And yet, somewhere
between all these different realities,
we seem to be giving up
on the essence of exchange:

The conversation.

We mistrust those
who claim to know better,
yet ignore those who simply know different.

We separate.
We form tendencies, groups, circles.

We listen internally,
no longer externally.
There is something strangely seductive about certainty.

Somewhere between
what I feel
and what I think I know,
something clouds my judgement.

I think.
I know.
I feel.

The boundaries blur.

We are willing to listen to those who appear superior
because they possess something we want:
expertise,
information,
an answer.

Listening becomes profitable.

But what about the person who has nothing to teach us except another way of seeing?
We listen to each other
without really listening
to one another.

We believe we know what they know.

We predict what they think they know.

Without listening.

Perhaps that is where disagreement begins to fail.

Not in difference,
but in the distance
we build around it.

We are taught that our own voice has value.
Raise it.
Stand your ground.
Speak up.
Find an expression for what you believe.

I like other perspectives.
I thought.

I sit down.
I observe.
I hold my patience.
I listen.

And then they speak.

I wonder
if their words are chosen
to inform
or to convince.

If there is something they want me to understand,
or if they simply like the sound of themselves understanding.

Maybe I am the ignorant one now.

What happens when another voice collides with yours?

How do you listen to something you cannot bear to hear?

How tolerant must we be of the intolerant?

Disagreement has become exhausting.

Knowledge is a privilege.
Opinion is a human right — at least in this construction of reality.

We don’t need to know
in order to think.

We don’t need to think
in order to feel.

But maybe we should admit the difference.

I think.
I know.
I feel.

Transparency begins here.

I don’t listen because I believe every perspective deserves to become mine.

Some things I hear I will continue to disagree with.
Some things I might even find unbearable.

I listen because I don’t want my certainty
to become
an escape.