Listening

August 22, 2025

My week at Chautauqua is coming to an end. I’ll be here through Tuesday to help close down for the season, but formal programming ends on Saturday. My posts during this week have reflected on my experiences this week, and that will probably continue through the beginning of next week, as I finish up here and make my way back to Williamsburg.

I was trying to think of something deep to say about my experience this week, but I’m going to focus on the simple idea of listening. At Chautauqua, I listen a lot. I listen to lectures, sermons, and concerts. Right now I can hear the rehearsal for tonight’s performance in the Amphitheater, about 100 yards from the house I’m staying in. I can hear the conversation of people walking by and the squeak of bicycles. A couple of trucks are going down the road. I can hear the birds, and yesterday I could hear the rain.

When I go to meals, I can hear the ongoing conversations as I’m walking in. I listen to the bustle of people doing the food-prep polka, navigating around four separate cooktops, five sinks, and lots of cupboards holding the accoutrements needed to prepare and serve a meal. I listen to the clanking of pots and pans and the clatter of dishes, glasses, and utensils.

I usually get down to breakfast pretty early, so I usually find a table by myself so I can drink my coffee and do my crossword puzzles. I can hear the murmur of conversations at the other tables, and I sometimes I listen in if they’re talking about something interesting (and not private – although there’s very little conversation in this space that is private).

Inevitably, within 20-30 minutes someone comes to the table and asks if they can join me. The answer is always yes – and the ensuing conversations are inevitably interesting. There is casual small talk, of course, but the conversation soon turns to what someone read or saw recently, and one day I had to hurry to actually eat breakfast before it was time to go to the morning lecture.

These conversations involve a lot of listening. People are polite – everyone is allowed to finish a thought before someone chimes in with a response. And the responses are often actually responsive – picking up on a point made and elaborating on it.

No one has watched TV in almost a week. There aren’t TVs in the UCC houses, and there’s no evidence of it any restaurants on the grounds. People sometimes watch video clips on their phones, but the conversations seldom reference what Rachel or Nicolle said. It’s a pleasant break.

The daily morning lectures are enlightening and inspiring. Every morning, a couple of thousand people stream into the Amphitheater to hear the featured speakers. The Amp holds 4,500 people; this week, it was packed on Monday (to hear Doris Kearns Goodwin) and Tuesday (to hear Morgan Freeman). I would say it was probably half-full on Wednesday and Friday. I see very few people on their phones or reading while the speaker is talking; everyone is listening intently. On the way out of the Amp (and on the way to lunch), people talk about what they heard from the lecture.

The Amp

Listening is a good discipline to acquire and practice. I’m going to work on that.