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Say that again

Isn’t communication an interesting thing.  Today our 6 year old had a friend come to play – this classmate is deaf, and the two children communicated well, with improvised sign language, nods, pushes and shoves, a certain amount of lip reading etc.  I remember communicating in the same way with my German cousin at the same kind of age.  Words become more important as I get older, and I pride myself on crafting them well.  So it’s curious to be thrown back onto improvisation and enunciation.

Funny how words like ice-cream can be communicated to children of any age or ability, whereas ‘sit down and eat your tea’ takes a little longer.  For me, words like ‘would you like a glass of….’ and ‘have some chocolate’ have a similar effect.  Maybe Jesus was right, and listening is mostly about hearing.

I’ve just joined Facebook, which was sold to me as a way of communicating, which it is, but only after a fashion.  Conversations over the last two days have centred around marmalade and the making thereof, the problem of parents and associated teenage frustrations, and the ability of those who have not been together for as long as Adrian and I have to snuggle down together for the evening, without interruption from children.

Hardly high level communication.  However, so far FB has either been communication with people who live at the other end of the country, so I almost never see let alone talk to them (some form of communication is better than none) or with teenagers, who communicate best without needing to look me in the eye.

Communication on a higher level is probably overrated.  Perhaps the minutiae of life is all we really need to make community and communication happen.  A friend recently asked, “who is my FB neighbour?’  Perhaps in cyberspace, it’s whoever has time to listen.

Oh, and do feel free to sign me up as a friend!


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