Mags Byblos Art and Byblos Switzerland, published by Dr. Joseph Yammouni, 2008
Le Byblos – 11 rue de Malagny CH 1196 Gland lebyblos@bluewin.ch Tel: +41 22 364 86 57
The din which is making us all deafer and deafer!
Our communications arsenal is vast and yet, humanity doesn’t seem to be able to break away from the dialogue of the deaf. Couples, generations, countries, religions and civilizations all suffer as a consequence.
Everyone wants to communicate but no one seems to want to listen. The need to be listened to is so vital and powerful that it is making us deaf to each other. “Listen to me” has become an absolute requisite and we want to snatch one from the other, a really vicious and infernal circle! How to listen and the need to be listened to in priority is so strong. We have to come out with it before we have made enough space to listen to the others’ worries.
The more we stop up our ears the harder they have to yell and shout. Noise has become a way of life. Consider our supermarkets, our parties, our encounters… Noise has become a kind of a religion. With all these bombs exploding around the world, with ever more din and causing increasing destruction in property and lives, is all this saying nothing more than “In the name of G… can you hear me? Come on! Listen to me.” But, of course, they’re both talking to each other simultaneously and the babble from one cancels out the voice of the other. This is a phenomena well understood in physics by the theory of light.
We have been encouraged to master speech and not silence. Fortunately, moments of grace do exist and we are all capable of really listening to another person, joining what is human in us with what is human in the other. The rare occasions when I have been able to do it first, I managed to talk afterwards without ever being interrupted. A true miracle!
Blessed is the womb that bears he who knows how to listen first.
The Alphabet of Communication; the Alphabet of Values; the Alphabet of Peace
In order to understand a language, it is absolutely necessary to understand its alphabet and then its grammar. That is likewise true for each science. Otherwise, any knowledge remains mutilated in the sense of being stunted, maybe even nonexistent.
However, why is it that, even when sharing the same language and same environment while fully understanding the grammar, communication is still often impossible?
It is probable that the value references are not identical. We use the same symbols, but they have different meanings.
Countless examples can be found at all levels. There is no need to list them. Daily life, both individual and collective, constantly reminds us of this painful fact.
Whatever the nature of the dialogue and the identity of the participants, couples, friends, or enemies, individuals groups, or communities, nations, religions, or civilizations, in order for communication to succeed, there is an overriding need to establish common references: To learn what I call the alphabet of the values of others, through active listening, going beyond our references, knowledge, and own value systems. We offer other people a tabula rasa on which they are invited to write the manner that they want to be understood. We adopt an approach to them with the same attitude towards life that we had as babies.
Once again, just by doing this, we would be able to go beyond our own actual values, reacquire the alphabet of new common values, and be shown the rays of light of personal serenity and genuine, universal, just and enduring peace appearing on the horizon. The expression “dialogue among civilizations” would take on full meaning.
This issue of Byblos is entirely dedicated to art. Artistic expression is probably one of the first letters of this common and universal alphabet that each of us will be called on to develop.
