NaBloPoMo- Day 12: Looking/Seeing, Hearing/Listening

So, hanging out in doctors' offices and hospital waiting rooms and grocery stores and the gym, for heaven's sake, are teaching me in new ways that we're just too busy as a society. We are pressed by deadlines, billable hours, insurance requirements and the need to Get.Things.Done. In addition to being busy, or crammed full, we're not very patient as a society. It's a little bit scary, because impatience or inattention can lead to error at the worst, or inefficiency, frustration or wasted time, at the least. Prescribing medication for the second time, when the doctor has been warned that the patient does not tolerate it well, leaves everyone comprised. When the patient representative asks someone four times in the span of ten minutes if they have a living will or advance directive, it makes for inside jokes and smiles, but really, it's just an example of inattention and not listening to oneself or others. No, really, what it does is leaves people feeling that they haven't been listened to. And honestly, there's nothing quite like the sting of feeling unseen or unheard. And there's nothing better than those increasingly rare occasions when someone listens well, sees clearly, "gets us". I wish it didn't feel so rare and exotic. Image from here.