September 25, 2012 (Tuesday)
Communication involves talking, listening and understanding. Try this sentence on for size:
“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
Six messages can come through in our conversations:
a) What you mean to say.
b) What you actually say.
c) What the other person hears.
d) What the other person thinks he
hears.
e) What the other person says about
what you said.
f) What you think the other person
said about what you said.
We are now in the silly season of the national campaigns for president. Each side evidently has teams of people reviewing every word spoken by the opposition. Wherever there seems to be any kind of goof or inconsistency, they put a spin on it and we are treated once again to a quotation by one side as interpreted and explained by the other side. I can hardly wait until the election is over, everyone shakes hands and chalks up this kind of stuff to “just politics.”
Meanwhile, the world camps out on the edge of “Armageddon.”