Listening to the Thin Voice of Silence

Hans Ucko

Deep listening to the other doesn’t just provide space for the other to be who he or she really is. Listening to the other also provides space for the listener’s own religious wanderings and pilgrimage.

The duo Simon and Garfunkel is famous for many songs. One of them is entitled “The Sound of Silence:"

"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening."

Most of us have noted the same. People talk but don’t communicate. People hear but are not listening. It’s not unusual, and we come across it, even in that which we refer to as dialogue. The realm of dialogue, where two or more people exchange ideas or opinions on a particular issue, is not always true to the inner meaning of the word. The word dialogue [διάλογος] itself is maybe to blame. The word is derived from the Greek words διά (diá), meaning “through,” and λόγος (logos), meaning “speech” or “discourse.” Dialogue thus means “through speech.” The word dialogue itself, from which of course the very concept of dialogue arises, may actually make us believe that listening is somehow subordinated to talking. It does not seem to offer space for listening, as if through speech alone we could dialogue.

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