PLEASE . . . HEAR WHAT I’M NOT SAYING
We all want to be listened to, but we hardly try to listen to others what they want to say. Listening is the most important thing in every relationship to be strengthened. And to listen to what other people are really saying, you also need to listen to what they’re not saying. No matter how hard people may appear on the surface, mostly everyone is tender inside and has a desperate need to be understood. The following poem (one of my all-time favorites) captures this need. PLEASE . . . HEAR WHAT I’M NOT SAYING by Charles C. Finn Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the mask I wear. For I wear a mask, I wear a thousand masks, masks that I’m afraid to take off, and none of them is me. Pretending is an art that is second nature with me, but don’t be fooled. . . . I give the impression that I’m secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without; that confidence is my name and coolness is my game; that the waters are calm and that I’m in command and I need no one....