Listening for Beginners

An ode to Inuit Robust Conversation

I have lived and worked in a number of communities representing diversity in terms of language, ethnicity, religion, registres and culture. Robust conversations are my blue flower, the object of my life long search. In all of my journeys, I have found that robust conversations with my Inuit friends, have given me the most "blue flower moments."

Is it the rarity of the conversation and the fewness of words? Is it the way in which my Inuit friends punctuate serious, heart-wrenching discussions with laughter than manages to get a room full of people laughing without any one person in the group getting hurt?

Is it the use of the old words that slip in out of necessity because there is just no other way to express the difference between world views, profoundly different ontology and axiology?

Is it the way in which my Inuit friends speak so softly that I have to be really, really quiet to hear?

Is it the way my Inuit friends speak with a cadence that seems to slow down my breathing, my heart beats so I can be in sync with them?

Is it the way my Inuit friends use laughter kindly to lighten the harshness of the everyday world, to teach each other --- and me --- some humility?

Is it the way in which my Inuit friends become ill if they become unwillingly caught in someone else's need to backbite?