Posted by
Doc Stephens on Saturday, January 26, 2008 10:04:01 PM
Dear Fellow Travelers,
If we're going on this journey together, I imagine we're going to want to have a conversation. It might be a good idea to establish some mutual understandings so that our journey and our conversation will be more interesting, civil, and enlightening, and much less confusing, contradictory, or argumentative.
When we communicate, we usually use words and phrases. When I use a word or phrase, I have a certain intended meaning. When you hear me speak or read what I write, you might not assign the same meanings to the words I use as the ones that I intended. We could, therefore, have a misunderstanding. This is human nature and it goes on all of the time-sometimes with very funny consequences, sometimes someone gets hurt or even killed. To further complicate matters, the meanings of words, depend very much upon the context in which they are expressed or perceived-the sentence, the paragraph, the environment, and even the audience. And of course, we must also consider all of the nonverbal aspects of the communication that you might be observing, or reading between the lines, that I may not realize you are perceiving and interpreting wrongly or rightly. Experts tell us that most of what we communicate is, in fact, nonverbal.
When we write, I believe there is still a nonverbal component to that communication. Now, I've already introduced some confusion. The word "nonverbal" means communication without language. How can written language occur without language. We may need a linguist to help us here, and, to paraphrase the immortal words of Lloyd Benson, yours truly, is no linguist. Anyway, we all read between the lines. And it is that perception of what is "between the lines" that I consider as the nonverbal communication received, but not necessarily sent or intended.
As we travel along this journey together, let's agree to the following. I'll do my best to write clearly and succinctly. You do your best to give me the benefit of the doubt as you draw conclusions about what I've said or meant. I'll pay attention to your comments, to the extent I have time, and clarify when it is obvious that I've failed to comply with my first rule. You will always obey my second rule, but will take the time to ask for clarification when you are not sure what I've meant.
I'm a life-long educator. One of the greatest and most important challenges we face as we develop as a society, is ignorance. I'm passionate about learning, formal and informal, intended and unintended. That is why I'm writing this. Through this effort, perhaps I might develop a little more wisdom, and at the same time, give my readers an equal opportunity to gain as much, or more.
Thanks for your consideration.