IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING

Communication is a wonderful think when it actually takes place. But so often it falls short for a variety of reasons. Complicating the problem is the pain of dealing with a language where so many words have more than one meaning. Which naturally increases the chance for misunderstanding.

So we end up with the endless, "he said, but meant this" scenarios. And no matter how often that happens we still end up with the dependency people have on verbal communication.

That is opposed to writing things down. You would think given all the misunderstandings we would always rely more on written communication, but we don't.

The reason is simple, it is so much easier to talk instead of write. To have to write it down takes extra time and then if you are using a computer you have to type it and then print it out. Which is a big pain in the butt if you just want to make a simple comment.

I think the basic nature of life for most people is that we are lazy. Or I should say whenever possible we want to find the easiest way to do dull things. So perhaps in the end I should say it is more than a sign of intelligence that we look for short cuts.

Does that justify the failure to turn out thoughts into a solidified understanding with another person? Probably not. It does sound good though.

I suppose the main reason I have elected to even bring this whole subject up is because of the number of times in the course of a day I hear somebody complaining about communication. Why wasn't I told? That is a way to common question.

And now days we add the joy of things like emails. So that way we can try to put it in writing without printing it out or even having to talk to the other person face to face.

But that doesn't solve all the problems. Wish it did. We still end up with the silliness of language fog. Or somebody not understanding the email the way it was intended.

All and all it is a silly world. One in which we celebrate the craziness and tell ourselves that we will do better. Only we never really do.

Which is part of the illusion. It is the communication that we give to ourselves that fails. So we do savor that game of denial.