Miscellaneous peeves

Sometimes I wonder, generally speaking, if people actually listen. I can be relating some story or concern and feel as if the person I’m speaking to just isn’t grasping what I’m trying to tell them. They reply with some anecdote, one of the same handful of not so short anecdotes that I’ve heard fifty times before, that can be considered only marginally relevant to the topic at hand. Or they talk faster than their brain can process what I’m telling them and jump to the wrong conclusion, followed by rapid fire of either additional incorrect suppositions or another verbose irrelevant story.

I’m a listener, an observer. It’s what I do. However, I hate being cut off while speaking. Although I enjoy a good story and retellings, I abhor hearing the same ones repeated in excruciating detail ad nauseum. And I don’t appreciate feeling as if the person in front of me isn’t giving me their full attention, that the point I was trying to get across just isn’t making it there.

This isn’t about anyone in particular. It is just an observation that’s been building and nagging at me from recent encounters with the public in general. Like people who adopt such strategies as just talking louder than you or the non-stop talking method when they want to get their point across. That some how not letting you speak or talking louder makes their point more valid.

Lesson to be learned? Sit back, truly listen to people, absorb what is said and give yourself time to process the facts, and for crying out loud let the speaker finish their thoughts before you start rambling on!