The Gospel of John

Words, Constructing Communication

Any attempt to use words to send meaning to another person is fraught with problems. First I have to encapsulate my shining thought in a shaky and porous construct of words. Then I have to speak those words clearly. The other person has to, first, hear them, then understand the basic words and then assemble them into some concept that is analogous to what I said. It's all a lot of work.

I prefer writing. There's time to choose words and time to think about, and experiment with, different ways of saying the same thing so that what I want to communicate has a good chance of getting across. Spoken words are brief in themselves and are limited in a conversation to the fewest that will do the job. They have to be conjured quickly because the moment in a conversation where those words will fit is fleeting.

And often words are used as a comforting blanket. We've heard them all before. You no more than start to speak and people know what you're going to say, and they tune out to start thinking about lunch or any of a zillion other things.

So, sometimes you need to wake people up. In writing this can be done in a measured way, structured bumps in the narrative that cause people to go back and reconsider. Or quit. Their choice. In speaking extemporaneously, decisions have to be made quickly.

As you might have figured out by now, I have little liking for standardized expressions. God doesn't do anything by rote, and I know that life doesn't come from memorized application of someone else's principles. The normal result is such odd little stories as I've posted here.

The spoken result sometimes takes an odd turn, as it did today when I dropped an "F-bomb" in the study. To those who were offended, I apologize. I had my eyes focused on making a particular point and my brain, as usual, chose the shortest way to make it. The construct got out before the censor could catch it... if it would have.

The point is to communicate, but what is being communicated? If the one bad word wipes out the whole thought, then I've failed. If, however, the listener feels the bump in the road and sees an old concept in a new way that adds to life, then, while it may not be justifiable or could have been done better, good enough. All groups vary. You make your choice and go.

Someone is going to be offended by something I say or write. People are even offended by my sand sculptures sometimes. I can't live my life so as to avoid offending everyone. I'd stay home in bed. Even that would bother somebody. My personal view is that rules have to bend before life.

posted by Larry @ 2:24 PM