“The paucity of my listening powers dawned on me as a byproduct of starting to meditate. This is not to make some claim to faux enlightenment – simply to say that meditation is the practice of noticing what you notice, and meditators tend to carry this mindset beyond the yoga mat, and begin to see their own mind more clearly. Among a smorgasbord of other patterns and quirks, what I saw was a self that, too often, didn’t listen.
The younger me enjoyed conversation. But a low, steady egoism meant that what I really enjoyed was talking. When it was someone else’s turn to talk, the listening could often feel like a chore. …
[W]e are encouraged to listen to our hearts, listen to our inner voices, and listen to our guts, but rarely are we encouraged to listen carefully and with intent to other people.”
I had a bit of a Forrest Gump moment early in my life when I had the opportunity to spend a few days in a seminar with Carl Rogers, a well-known psychologist. Like the author of this article, I have difficulty with active listening, something I evidently failed to appreciate in my time with Dr. Rogers. From Aeon, a discussion of Carl Rogers and active listening, The art of listening
“The mere thought of barbecue’s smokey scents and intoxicating flavors is enough to get most mouths watering. Summer is here, and that means it is barbecue season for many people in the U.S.”
I love BBQ; slow and low is indeed the way to go, but let's take a deeper dive into the chemistry and physics behind a national treasure. From The Conversation, What makes smoky, charred barbecue taste so good? The chemistry of cooking over an open flame
“According to postmodernists, the asserted Western truths must be rejected, and instead, we should listen only to those whose knowledge has been undervalued and who rely on emotion, personal experience, traditional narratives, customs, spiritual beliefs, folk wisdom, folklore and witchcraft. Hearing from people with these “oppressed identities will give us “extra dimensions of sight.”
Is science a methodology or a way to further enslave and exploit those cultures and people already being used? From Truth In Science, Scientific Rejectionism.
Conflicts of interest come in many forms; this one involves network effects, where the network you control generates quite a bit of additional revenue. Say it’s not true, AARP.
“But its financial reports to the IRS show that AARP collects a total of about $1 billion annually in these fees — mostly from health care-related businesses, which are eager to sell their wares to the group’s nearly 38 million dues-paying members. … That’s more than three times what it collected in member dues, just over $300 million, according to the report. Of the royalties, $752 million were from unnamed “health products and services.”
From Kaiser Health News, AARP’s Billion-Dollar Bounty
Chuck Dinerstein, MD, MBA
Director of Medicine
Dr. Charles Dinerstein, M.D., MBA, FACS is Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health. He has over 25 years of experience as a vascular surgeon.
