Genuine listening transforms participants without requiring agreement

Evidence

Thinking about sensitivity reminds me of a monthlong artist residency I once attended with two other artists in an extremely remote location in the Sierra Nevada. There wasn’t much to do at night, so one of the artists and I would sometimes sit on the roof and watch the sunset. She was Catholic and from the Midwest; I’m sort of the quintessential California atheist. I have really fond memories of the languid, meandering conversations we had up there about science and religion. And what strikes me is that neither of us ever convinced the other—that wasn’t the point—but we listened to each other, and we did each come away different, with a more nuanced understanding of the other person’s position. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 110

Categorization

Category: Inspiration and Speculation

• FICTION: The specific scene — two unlike strangers on a roof at dusk in the Sierra Nevada, neither convinced — reads as a ready-made literary set piece.