more listening

Remember that video that circled around the internet for awhile that had people fighting over whether it said “laurel” or “yanny”?

When I first heard the video, I only heard “laurel”. Then, a friend told me they heard “yanny”. I listened to the video again, and suddenly I heard both “laurel” and “yanny”. How could it be possible to hear more than one thing?

A second listen to that youtube video helped me hear something new, and that has me thinking about what else I need to do more listening with.

I was at my friend Claire’s house the other day, and we were making some food together. I reached into the fridge, and saw a jug of almond milk sitting on the shelf. I made a small joke about how I preferred whole milk, but that joke spurred a conversation where I got to listen more to Claire.

Almond milk has brought a controversial topic to the table of agriculture, and it’s always interesting to hear each person’s viewpoint on it. Claire’s perspective was that almond farmers are also farmers, and in buying almond milk, she was supporting agriculture just the same as she would with a jug of whole milk.

Let’s listen to that again—almond farmers are farmers too. Claire has listened to both sides of the almond milk and regular milk conversation, and she recognizes that she can support agriculture on both sides.

Agriculture is an industry where we encourage speaking as an advocate, but we often forget that a big piece of advocating is also listening. Listening to those who we are advocating to and being able to relate to them is, in my opinion, the most crucial piece.

When it comes to finding common ground with people, it won’t be found with hard facts and statistics. It will be found in listening to find similar values and mutual connection. Don’t get me wrong, being scientifically accurate is crucial. As advocates though, we need to lead with listening to understand where to start build a trusting and understanding conversation. We must be quick to listen, and slow to speak.

My friend Yomar has some wise words about this whole listening thing. He always says that we are born with two ears, and just one mouth for a specific reason. That reason is because we should listen more than speak.

Let’s listen to those words, and know that there is more listening to be done daily with every person we encounter.

There’s more to listen.

There’s more to it all.