Catherine Pepinster - 09/10/26

Available for over a year

I was very struck the other day when I heard a continuity announcer mention the 80th birthday of Woman’s Hour, describing it as a programme that’s about the importance of listening to women’s voices, sometimes when no one else does. It was the third time this past week that I came across someone refer to the importance of listening. For however much you enable people to speak up and speak out, their voices will disappear into the ether if others don’t listen. A witness needs someone to hear what they have to say. Listening, real listening takes effort. Nowadays people are surrounded by constant noise so they’ve become adept at blocking it out or only pay limited attention. It’s common, for example, to keep half an ear on the radio while preparing breakfast or looking after children. Why, some people may even do it when Thought for the Day is on air. Earlier this week, I heard Keith Leslie, chair of the Samaritans talk about the importance of listening – a skill that the Samaritans, who talk to those troubled or in despair – make the foundation of their work. After a career in management consultancy and six years as chair of the Samaritans, Keith Leslie has become all too aware that in the workplace nowadays the emphasis is on swift problem-solving rather than listening closely to someone else’s thoughts. And he pointed out that people are often so focused on themselves that they would rather tell their own story than listen to what others are saying. Pauline Oliveros, the late American composer and accordionist, said something similar. She was an advocate of what she called deep listening, urging performers to be attentive to their environment and its reverberations. They need continual alertness, she said. She also warned people from my profession, journalism, that we must be careful to listen and not just think what might we might say next. Listening, though, is not just about sounds. It’s about silence. Keith Leslie, in talking about the work of the Samaritans, said that its volunteers learn to deal with silence. They wait, without speaking, until the person at the other end of the phone is ready to talk. It could be several calls before they are ready to speak. Silence forms an essential part of listening in the Christian tradition. One afternoon this week I attended evensong at Winchester Cathedral. While the choir sang psalms of praise and of yearning for God, the congregation sat in silence. But this was not about passivity: as the cathedral said, it allowed the congregation to participate by listening. In a busy, noisy world, it is possible to be still and to come closer to God. Sometimes silence is more eloquent than words.