A Word for Listening to Each Other
Éist • verb • (ahysht)
Definition: to listen, to harken, to attend
Origin: Irish
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This week marks the one year anniversary of COVID-19 reshaping American life and keeping us inside our homes as we tried to avoid a deadly contagious disease. Prior to COVID-19, The Sustainable Culture Lab prioritized in-person gatherings to hold our conversations, but all of that changed along with the rest of the world. This newsletter soon became one of our strongest vehicles for conversing with our community.
It has nearly been a year since we’ve started this newsletter and the goal of The Word has always been to foster new conversations and perspectives by injecting new words into our discourse. The purpose has never been to talk at our readers, but to talk with them. So as we approach our first year mark, I think it is only fitting to introduce a word that was shared with me by one of our community members.
A Culture of Listening
Éist derives from the Old Irish éistid, and at its core éist demonstrates the importance of listening to strengthen and heal communities. Far too often, listening can become a passive activity. It is easy to “listen” to another person but have the words go in through one ear and out the other. It is also easy to hear what you want to hear rather than what they’re really saying. These are modes of listening that do not encompass true listening. Therefore, éist is one of those words we need to incline us to listen in a more attentive and full way.
The multiplicity of éist’s definition, “to listen, to harken, to attend,” encourages us to engage in a more full-bodied listening. Harken means “to listen attentively.” Passivity is no longer an option because one cannot passively harken. “To attend” speaks to the need of being physically present as you listen. Therefore, éist means that one must strive to be mentally and physically present as they listen. The distinction between the English word listen and éist may seem subtle, but the necessity of being mentally and physically present actually creates the foundation for strong and stable communities.
When people gather together in a shared space and commit to listening to one another, they create cultural and communal bonds. Relationships form and it becomes easier to transcend differences. It becomes easier to see yourself in another person and recognize our shared humanity. Éist helps all of us prioritize existence ahead of essence, and practice the African proverb of ubuntu, meaning “I am because we are.” Communities are able to strengthen their collective “we” by bringing people together to actively listen to one another.
The concept of éist becomes especially important when you are unable to be physically present. Éist reminds us to not “phone it in” and to ensure that our presence can be felt even if we cannot physically be present. The phrase “phone it in” even speaks to the expectation of not actually listening due to being in a different location.
Due to COVID-19, countless people have needed someone to listen to them as they confronted previously unimaginable situations. People have needed the support of a community as they were prevented from communing with their friends and family, so the language and values of a community have become especially important. A word for the necessity of engaged and meaningful listening is the type of language that we all need. Nowadays we all need some éist.
Ethnocide vs. Éist
One of the reoccurring complaints about American culture in recent years has been how difficult it can be for Americans to listen to each other. When it comes to American politics, we often profess a desire for bipartisanship where the Democrats and Republicans can listen to each other and collectively address the problems of our society. America yearns for éist, but we struggle to accomplish this goal because sustained ethnocidal division has long been foundational to American life.
European colonizers never intended to equally commune when they created societies that stamped Indigenous and African peoples as the eternal “other.” They never desired to see themselves existing with the “other.” Within this ethnocidal society, éist could only exist within the community of the colonizer also known as the ethnocider, and could not extend into the colonized also known as the ethnocidee. If éist could not be shared within an entire community, then it could not exist at all. If éist could only exist within the divided communities of the ethnocider and ethnocidee then ethnocide had now corrupted communal listening into another tool for perpetual division. When each side only “listens” to their side you cannot engage in éist.
A culture had now been created devoid of true listening, and the generational absence of éist proposes a profound problem as more and more Americans work to listen to one another. As the previously excluded voices become a vital part of our cultural listening, we must also delicately and forcefully inform the multitude of Americans who perceive themselves to be omniaudient—all-hearing—that their culture has barely listened to others for centuries.
The shock and anger of both being made aware of the necessity of listening and the ethnocidal cultural flaws that have impaired one’s ability to listen can incline Americans to yearn for the ethnocidal division that never required them to listen to the “other.” America’s familiarity with ethnocide can make people yearn for perpetual division as they struggle to forge community. This is a propensity we all must consciously fight as we work to make our society a more equitable and Eǔtopian place.
This week, let’s practice active listening and analyze ways we can become better listeners. Do you make eye contact? Or do you completely zone out? Maybe you often ask the other person to repeat themself because you weren’t paying attention. Maybe you often anticipate a criticism and become defensive instead of truly listening. Do you often view conversations as a competition where you need to “win” or appear “smart” instead of an opportunity to listen and learn from another person? Noticing small things like these and thinking about the ways in which you can practice éist can foster deeper connections with people and your community.
