Cafe Dialogue, The Art of Listening

Next Tuesday July 31 we’ll be at Second Cup Kensington / Sunnyside (across from Safeway, corner of 10th Street and 3rdAvenue NW) and next Wednesday August 1 at Vendome (940 2ndAvenue NW, just a 5 minute walk across the LRT track from Second Cup). The dialogues start at 6 PM.

The topic for next Wednesday is The Art of Listening. Just for fun, you might test your skill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848MrvcOnfk and then listen to these four tipshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6-MIeRr1e8 and then enjoy this one on how to have a good conversation (ten rules)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6n3iNh4XLI

Last Tuesday, with Don Harris facilitating, we wrote popcorn paragraphs on the spot for the first time. Then we briefly discussed the importance of dialogue and the art of listening, and heard about a program at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in which health care professionals provide empathic listening to colleagues who have experienced extraordinary stress in their work on the clinical ward. We talked a bit about the meaning of “corruption,” learned about the Gini coefficient and about Canadian income inequality trends over the past thirty years. This led to a somewhat more extensive discussion of whether a shift in values was needed in our culture and Mahendra was there to contribute to that inquiry. Edgar Allen Poe wasn’t there but we heard his poem “Annabel Lee.”

Last Wednesday at Vendome we discussed what really motivates our behaviour and whether we are ever truly altruistic.

How’s that for synaptic activity?

Arthur