The Joy Ride #66

Welcome, fellow adventurers, to the Masculine Journey Joyride Podcast. This is a brand-new show from the guys you know.

I'm talking, of course, about the Band of Brothers. My name is Keith, and I'm the producer for Masculine Journey and Masculine Journey After Hours. In this podcast, you will hear funny stories, exchanges, and thought-provoking moments that will amuse you, make you smile, and draw you closer to Jesus Christ in your journey of life. Hearing and listening, listening and hearing. You can hear what I'm saying, but are you listening? You can listen to what I'm saying, but do you really hear me? So what am I saying?

I have no idea. Harold, help me out, man. The difference between hearing and listening is, to me, an important thing. I did look up a couple of definitions that I'll read. Hearing is an accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires no effort. Listening, on the other hand, is purposeful and focused rather than accidental.

As a result, it requires motivation and effort. Listening, at its best, is active, focused, concentrated attention for the purpose of understanding the meanings expressed by a speaker. So, you know, to me, a part of it is that we can't help but hear sounds, but unless we're listening, those sounds may mean nothing at all to us. I worked for many years, almost 44, in information systems, and I would use earphones and music so that when I was writing programs, I wouldn't have to hear phones, conversations, and it would shut the door, in effect, to somebody wanting to stop by and talk, because I wanted to be able to concentrate on developing the computer code. So, to me, I could have that hearing, but since I wasn't really listening, it did what I wanted to.

It was just background noise that drowned out other unwanted background noise. So that's kind of where we are. I had a revelation there, after your definition. If I tell you, Harold, I hear what you're saying, that's actually kind of insulting, isn't it? I'm not listening. I just hear you. Well, that could be true, but it could also be true that you did understand what I said. I'll have to go back and listen to this show. I was already moved on to, like, four other points. So, from the guys on Masculine Journey, I'm Keith, and we'll see you down the road. This is the Truth Network.