Alert Passivity

I watch Anderson Cooper.  I'm not sure why!  Always I'm expecting to hear something fresh.  Only in a blue moon do I feel rewarded.  Perhaps it's that I'm not a good listener.  Given our cultural obsession with conquests, results, and goals, I don't believe much authentic/simple listening is happening.  What we do is ingest every soundbite, every comprehensive analysis and every impassioned plea from a standing preconception.  We hide inside a  forcefield built of dead constructs, conclusions, and prejudices, rejecting all things divergent.  I would like to think that people in love listen; that their diminished self is inwardly quiet enough and safe enough that to commune beyond the noise of words is sometimes possible,.....but,  even as I hear my own words they are being neutralized by a flood of memories and derivative opinions.  Maybe, I will listen to you, because I sure as hell don't buy anything I'm saying.   john