Reading

 Do you ever notice that when you are reading something, a book, paper, your mind drifts off, but you seem to keep reading, recalling nothing of what you read, until you catch yourself in your daydream or thoughts?  Something you were reading might have set your mind or memory off in another direction.  It is the same when we are trying to listen to another person.  They are narrating something, some story or information to us, so we are “reading” them, just like a book.  And the same thing happens.  They say something or they are not interesting and we drift off into some thoughts that engage us, even though we are in the stance or posture of seeming to listen.  I do this at times and get caught.  I guess my face, an honest face, gives me away.  I have to work at paying attention when I “judge” that another person has said too much or not enough.  My effort becomes an act of kindness.  Maybe they are lonely.  The hardest reading of another person is when they are spouting opinions, that nothing I might say will change them.