Listening —
I have always had poor hearing. If you’re a certain age, you’ll remember lining up to go into your school library, where someone gave you headphones and told you to raise your hand when you heard each tone. I didn’t have to raise my hand much, so, yay? /sarcasm Over the years I realized that I was compensating in other ways. And after reading that essay, I’m left wondering if having really poor hearing for most of my life, might be the secret to my listening.
For those with more serious loss, the decline of one sense often strengthens others. Watch anyone who has had hearing problems for a while and it’s obvious that they are listening differently. They listen with the whole of themselves, bodies turned towards the speaker, drinking in cues. They don’t hear so much as inhale, taking in everything from the expression in the other person’s eyes to the story told by their hands. At a sign language class or a deaf pub night, people — British people, even — will be listening and communicating with everything they have: gesture, expression, if necessary grabbing the other person and physically manhandling them into understanding.
~ Bella Bathurst from, Listening is a pleasure, a balm and an art. Time to tune in | Aeon Essays
Stand-ups —
Not comedic stand-up; Stand-up reporting… the lone person, holding a microphone. This wonderful conversation was full of little insights about visualization, imagination, and doing it over and over and over and over to get it right…
~ “Stand-Ups” from the Sound School podcast (back when it was called How Sound) https://transom.org/2012/stand-ups/