When people who have faced a potentially fatal illness talk to each other, a truly remarkable event occurs. When people have been forced to deal with death and the questions it brings, each person understands that feeling of uncertainty. Each person remembers wondering what conversation would be their last. Through this, the rules speaking and listening change completely.
Listening is no longer waiting for your turn to speak, or trying finishing the other person’s sentences. Speaking is no longer telling a cute little story, or raising your voice in a ‘fake interest’ falsetto. No. Now when we talk, we’re building something. A structure of thought and emotion that each of us contributes to… and we all get to walk away with. When the conversation is over, we’re all a little different than we were before it started. And in this single way… we feel sorry for all the people of the world who have never been sick.