" Listen in. LIsten up. Listen closely. Stop, look, and listen. These and other familiar expressions speak to the distinct state that is listening: it requires that we press in, wake up, draw close, stop whatever else we are doing. Listening places heavy demands on mind and body alike. It is hard work. For this reason, numerous commentators over the ages have argued that few people truly listen well. Most of us, most of the time, do it poorly, barely, and perhaps not at all. In a radio broadcast titled "Listen to This," the American writer Alice Duer Miller remarked, 'People love to talk but hate to listen... Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what's being told us.' Miller then encapsulated her lesson in a memorable image: 'You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer. "

― Richard Hughes Gibson , Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words