"Active Listening", I'm sure you've heard about that much-hyped tool of communication. It goes something like this. Bob: I hate my dog. Mary: I hear you say, you hate your dog. At this point Bob wonders, what is the matter with this woman; does she need her head examined?
Well anyway, I probably simplified this complex mechanism of truth seeking, but it's right up there on my list of the Top 10 worst ways to carry on a real conversation. As soon as I hear a person speaking like that, I automatically tune them out.

As a matter of note, I also clump this into the list of useless Nursing tricks, along with Care Plans with their "special" nursing language. Doctor Dude writes, SOB, or short of breath. Nurse Clump has to write, "Impaired Gas Exchange". Take it from me, if you stand downwind of Nurse Clump, you will clearly discover there is no impairment in her gas exchange, and quite frankly you will be S.O.B. too. I suspect most of these Useless Nursing Tricks are devised by underpaid Nurse Researchers. More on this another day, ok?

Back to the main topic of Active Listening:

The Wilderness of Speech

Active listening, is one of those things
That is destroying this life, as we know it,
Repeating the works that the other one said
Prompts me to tell them to "stow it",
It doesn't feel right to me, I will admit
It isn't a part of my vernacular,
And I have a suspicion that the active adepts
Undoubtedly feel quite oracular.

It's touted quite often, by communication experts
As a fabulous, simplified tool,
But who has the guts, to agree with me here
Just who are they trying to fool?
It sounds too damned phony, I'm not put at ease
By the smooth talking, active practitioner,
I'm a small voice of protest
In the wilderness of speech,
Wondering who is the language commissioner?

Fibril_late; 10/95