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“What Are Words For When No One Listens Anymore?”
Is anyone else feeling this, these days? As in: speaking but not being heard?
Or rather, FEELING as if you are not being heard? People talking over you, AT you instead of WITH you, interrupting you, forcing you to then be perhaps more forceful then you would otherwise normally BE? I don’t like this, at all. I can most definitely be assertive when I need to be (and often am) because: as a physically petite small boned former ballet dancer who just happens to have a very soft speaking voice, this type of verbal intimidation by others has pretty much been my entire life. In fact, it was this very reason, that the now former Chair of the English Department that I taught composition and literature courses in at a local university was worried about for me, on my behalf, saying: “The kids will run over you if you project this quality” and, he was right, and in many ways, that brief time I spent teaching helped me immensely in learning to hone and perfect my public speaking skills. Was it scary? Oh yes, absolutely without a doubt.
BUT, it was a very good learning experience for me at the same time, too.
Lately, I’ve been noticing this more and more with most places…individuals who apparently can not be bothered to exhibit common courtesy and a civil politeness towards others. The thing is: a part of me DOES understand as we’re all stressed out, fatigued, and battle scarred from the past few years, now…so, it’s understandable that a lot of this is manifesting in many different and varied ways and I really truly have tried my utmost best to show compassion and kindness to others especially right now during this time; however, my ability to do so is rather hanging by my own shredded thread at the moment. Of course, I like to think, I suppose, that I am somehow “above” all of this, when the reality is: I’m not; not at all
For example, I found myself on the phone the other day with a customer service representative repeating the same information over and over again and the person was being rude, talking over me until finally I just said this:
“STOP! Take a deep breath. Calm down and speak to me like a human being.” They were quiet for a moment, but then continued on as if I hadn’t said a damn word. I realize our collective society is frayed beyond the…
