Common Elements of Tunnels and Dialogue

In one of the parish bulletins, the writer shows the readers the similarity of tunnels to dialogue.

Korea is a land of mountains and valleys. When we move from one area to another we are moving over mountains to valleys. Koreans are people who live in the heart of the mountains.

Civil engineering technology is well developed in Korea and is recognized throughout the world. This is shown with the construction of tunnels. Wherever we go in Korea no longer necessary to go over mountains for we have tunnels that have decreased the time for travel and made it comfortable with the removal of obstacles of the past.

He dreams of a time when we will remove the obstacles between people like the tunnels that increased the comfort of travel. What do you see as the technique that will enable us to overcome the obstacles that prevent easy encounters with others? Our writer sees this as dialogue. The ability to express what is inside of us to another and to hear what the other wants to convey without any obstacles or hesitancy.
He believes that dialogue is the first step in solving problems we have among ourselves.

Of course, dialogue is not always accompanied by pleasant emotions, words that are easy to accept, and always positive. We often hear just the opposite. Is this not very natural and to be expected? It is by going thru this give and take, saying what is inside without any obstacles and hesitancy that the possibility of understanding is present.

In dialogue one thing is important and that is to listen. We need to ask ourselves how much time is spent listening to the other. Talking without listening is worse than not talking in the first place.

Pope Francis in his 56th Communication Day Message gives us some important issues to ponder in our capacity to listen.

"In reality, in many dialogues, we do not communicate at all. We are simply waiting for the other person to finish speaking to impose our point of view. In these situations, as philosopher Abraham Kaplan notes,  dialogue is a duologue: a monologue in two voices. In true communication, however, the “I” and the “you” are both “moving out”, reaching out to each other.
 
"Listening is therefore the first indispensable ingredient of dialogue and good communication. Communication does not take place if listening has not taken place..."