Connecting

I have just finished a “conversation” on Facebook

It didn’t end well

Oh… yes, I get it!

“I talked (wrote) a lot a listened very little

Forgive me, Lord: it was a monologue and not a dialogue

I explained my idea and did not get his;

Since I didn’t listen, I learned nothing

Since I didn’t listen, I didn’t help

Since I didn’t listen, we didn’t commune…”

                              (an excerpt from a prayer by Michael Quoist, Prayers,  p.19

It matters not if we agree about a subject

There are lots of things about which we can disagree (guns for example)

And Facebook (and texts, and email) is not the best medium for any conversation

For they do not allow for body language, tone of voice

(forget emoticons)

They do not allow for corrections, and that slow stumbling toward understanding

What matters in the end is that we listen, and hear

That we refuse to get pulled into the kind of dialog where

People feel diminished, marginalized, ignored

I know it is not all about me

That mistakes are usually made on both sides

But I have control of me

So….

For all the times, including the conversation today,

Where I have not engaged in dialog

And where understanding has not happen

And respect has not been communicated

For all the times it has not gone well

O Sacred One forgive me