I was meditating by the Milwaukee River in Estabrook Park years ago. Two men walked by on the path just above me. They were gossiping and one of them said, “He’s as dumb as a bag of hammers. And I’m not talking about a particularly smart bag of hammers.”
As Thornton Wilder once said, “There’s nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.”
We’re all so disconnected lately. I can’t talk to my husband when we’re on a plane or in an Uber because he has his AirPods in his ears. Some days I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t have AirPods in my ears. Does anyone eavesdrop anymore?
Don’t get me wrong, there’s something to be said for not being forced to listen to two people having what seems like the world’s most boring conversation. On the other hand, we increase our capacity for empathy when we hear a parent trying to soothe a fussy child on a seven-hour flight. Or when we listen to two teenagers in the backseat who have forgotten that our ears are a few feet away.
The Hanged Man tarot card is about getting a new perspective. The best way to do that is to realize that other people’s lives work differently than our own. They have different priorities, dreams, and intentions. We think we’ve honed the perfect system for paying bills, doing laundry, driving to work, or whatever it is. When we take the time to see that others also think they have a pretty good system, it gives us something to chew on.
I like to believe I’m efficient. I think I would have made an excellent efficiency engineer. My husband recently saw me put on my footwear and asked if I was human because I do the left foot’s sock and shoe, then the right foot’s sock and shoe. “Who does that?” he asked. A few months ago, I saw that he wets his toothbrush before putting on the toothpaste. Genius! Why hadn’t I ever thought of that?
Those are simplistic examples. But you get the picture. Pay attention. Listen. Watch. What if you adopted someone else’s point of view for a moment? How might that change your life?
