“Listening” June 2021
Please read this summary.
A famous example of “Invisibility” and “Listening”.
Take a walk,
and record your experience using the “Observing Exercise” and notice how we invent our world in language.
Read Chapter 6, “Listening”, of Mobilize! Dancing in the World by Chauncey Bell
Linked above is a digital copy, or if you wish, you may want to purchase your own copy.
Ponder a question you may have for “Office Hours with Chauncey”.
Observing Excercise
Chauncey frequently says: It’s important to notice that we invent the world in language. Further, he adds that most people respond to that assertion with a “nod” of agreement, but they don’t fully experience that speaking and creation and being in the world are deeply connected. This exercise is designed to have us experience the way in which we invent the world in language.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and record your answers to the questions below in writing.
Yourself
What is your name? Where did your name come from? Who named you, and in what tradition did they name you?
What are you wearing, and where did it come from? Who defined the styles of clothing you are wearing, who branded them, and who taught you to wear those clothes?
In what way do you think about the kind of person you are, and from what traditions influenced the conversation about the kind of person you are?
City or town
What is the name of the city or town, you are walking in? Who gave it that name, when, and in what traditions?
What are the boundaries of the city or town? Who defined those boundaries, and when?
In what style and/or political tradition is the city or town governed? Are there changes appearing in the rules and habits of behavior in the city or town?
Roads and paths
How did these get here? Who asked for them, who paid for them, who designed them, who installed them?
What are the traditions of driving and walking in the city or town? Right or left side of the road? What about the signage? What kinds of rules prevail? Traffic lights? Stop signs? What are the consequences of not following the traffic instructions embodied in the signs?
Do people in the city or town generally follow the instructions or not?
Conventions
Do strangers greet each other when they pass? Smile at each other?
How close to each other do people stand when they are talking?
How are others dressed?
Who picks up the litter? Do you stop and pick up litter?
Homes
Well-kept or ill-kept?
How are the boundaries of properties marked? Are numbers visible on homes?
What rooms are on the public sides of the homes? Kitchens? Living rooms? Why? Who specified that those rooms should be placed there?
Woodlands
What are the names of the trees and plants you see there? Do you know some of those names? Who gave them those names? Where would you go to find out what their names are and what is the history of naming and thinking about those names?
Who put those trees and plants there? In what kind of conversation did they define would be there, and how they would be arranged?
Who cares for the trees and plants? Why?
Enterprises
Are the names of the companies displayed on the buildings? Why? Why not?
Are there people in those buildings?
How did they get there, really – not that they walked or drove – what language-actions led to their being there?
The Sky
Glance at the sky.
How many features of the sky can you name? Where did those features get their names?
Why are those features important? Why do their names “stick”?
The Earth
Feel the earth under your feet.
What sensation does it give you?
What do you call that sensation?
Where did you learn to call the sensation what you called it?
Divinities
As you have walked and observed, have you experienced the emotions we call “gratitude” or “awe”?
How did you express those emotions – to yourself privately or out loud?
Final question:
What do you notice about your community after this walk that you have not noticed about it before?
As you finish your walk, put aside your notes from answers to the questions and bring them to our next meeting.