I am reminded of a story about a man and wife. And the husband would look up from his paper mystified. Eventually she learned of a free hearing clinic to be held in town and took her husband for testing. But you might need a marriage counselor. It is true, I think, that we often tune each other out.
Husbands turn a deaf ear to wives, children tune out their parents.
Sometimes communities of people will not hear the plea for help from poor neighbors. One of the greatest challenges to people trying to raise an issue on a national level is getting heard, breaking through the indifference of the news media, the politician's agendas for re-election. Yet our protests are in a way perhaps like the prayer of Jesus praying for the deaf man, praying for all who are deaf to families and neighbors, a plea that ears be opened. Deafness and denial have played a big part in my own life. Sometimes it required a terrible event to open my ears.