Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Failure to be paralinguistic

Why do we continually ignore the importance of communicating our selves?
Personally, I focus on what I am linked to at all times. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. Be it the company I keep or the messages I send out into the world via my behaviors or speech.

Communication. According to dictionary.com anyway.
bulletin, call, connection, contact, conversation, directive, esp, exchange, fax, impartment, intelligence, intercommunication, intercourse, kinesics, language, letter, liaison, link, message, news, note, phatic, radiogram, report, telegram, telepathy,
telephone, telex, transmission, wavelength, wire

I set out in search of a word other than communication to try and offer a newfangled perspective on a communication issue to a friend who is constantly failing to communicate with those in her life.
Communication is and always will be the most important function of our world.
Communication is the basis for our life.
All other mammals have mastered their communication skills with each other.
Stupid humans!
The more I stop to analyze situations or people, the more I realize that most of our problems as human beings seem to all somehow boil down to a gumbo of mis-communications.
I stumbled across this link in my search:
The big issues? War, hunger, and oppression, of course. After that, questions of human communication seem pretty important to me.
Especially since the landscape we stand on is shifting. [Update: The comments on this piece are fantastic. My profound thanks to the contributors.]

Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years, more or less. Evidence suggests that human language has to be at least 50,000 years old, and there are reasonable arguments (cf. Chomsky) that it goes back about as far as we do.

For most of those years, the only way for people to use language was to be in each others’ presence. But as time has unfolded we’ve been fixing that problem. Not, however at an even pace:
Age in Years
(2007 estimate)
Homo sapiens ~200,000
Language >50,000
Writing 5,000
Telephone 131
Broadcasting 101
E-Mail 25
IRC 19
Texting 15
IM 11
Blogging 10
Twitter 1

Leading us to the marvels of Technology and the advances of communication in that respect.

However, I can't help thinking about how the advances in technology seem to enhance the lack of immediate conversation, one on one/real time call it like it is at that moment communication.

I honestly feel a strong, dare I say telepathic , connection to those I love and share my life with. I even feel this sometimes for random complete strangers who are friends of lovers of cousins of mothers.
Is this psychic ability? I am not ready to define it but it is more than chance. Is our communication being broken down by the forces that keep us in touch with the world? The more we loose touch with the world, the more we loose touch with ourselves and our inner communicative tools? I have been pondering that for a while.

My martial Arts instructor, Dr. G, gave me a book to read which after 2 weeks I finally cracked open. It is a great reinforcement to observations of the true power of communication previously in my life and with some techniques to improve the execution of this power.
In my brief study in linguistics, I truly discovered the power of the mind and it's splendor. Fascinating, really.
Words are intentions and intentions can be used to create "magic". Magic is a wish come true. I grasp these concepts because I make things happen. I see examples every day. I just need to learn to also accept the disappointment of NOT making it happen. Sour with the Sweet.
And to my friend... only by communicating your true wants and needs will you ever change your reality. It is that simple. Decide what YOU want & need and don't stop til you make it happen!

If you could make one wish
and you knew it would be granted,
what would you wish for?

Think about it.
Visualize it.

.....watch it work, real magic.
Photobucket

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