it is communication

Last night I watch Lars and the Real Girl. For those of you who have not watched this film I highly recommend it and encourage you to run and pick it up to watch with dinner tonight. Much of this movie dealt with communication or lack there of in our daily lives and how we can be affected by it. It made me think of how often we have communication errors with loved one and we don't realize that the error has been made and it could be years later when we realize how that small misstep altered our future. Something like 90% or more off all communication is body language, inflection, tone and expression. Here lately though there is less and less verbal communication with e-mail and texting and fax and typed letter. So it begs the question are we communicating properly if the reader is only able to grasp 10% of what we are trying to say? The Oxford English Dictionary says that there are approximately 250,000 words in the English language and about 20% of those words are not in use. That mean while we are using so much of the written word in current communication we are not using approximately 50,000 available words to get our point across. On late night TV last night they were making a spoof about Merriam-Webster Dictionary changing proper use of words, ie; the word literally is now to be expressly used in any context except when something is literal. Example my head literally exploded with information. Funny but true unfortunately. There are so many words that we use that mean entirely different things than the context that we are using them. Take awful for example. Awful technically means full of awe, awe is something inspiring, large, magnificent yet we use it as something that is horrid, wretched, disgusting (ie; That egg smells awful). The word extraordinary if taken apart means exceptionally plain yet we use it as something exceptionally out of the ordinary. I guess what I am attempting to convey is this, watch what you say, type, express or write. Understanding communication amongst ourselves is every important and we should not take it forgranted, we should not be lazy in our speech and we should use as much of the human language as we possibly can and as properly as possible.

it is the way we forget

I drove past a stone pillar today surrounded by highway. It was old, probably at one point marking a farm entrance, it stood solitary and strong watching the world move and change around it. The farm was gone, the land eaten by concrete. The farm house was no where to been seen, probably fallen or torn down after neglect. The cattle, the horses, the sheep, buggies and people all gone yet this stone monument standing the test of time, almost forgotten by the rest of the world. It caused me to think about all that has gone on before me. How much of the world has lived, how much has been forgotten, lost for the rest of civilization. I am a person who loves history, I love knowing what has happened in the past, it fascinates me to watch people run the same cycles over and over again. It amazes me how easy it is for so many people to disregard the past and think that it will not effect their future. I find it shockingly horrid that so many of my peers don't know the history of the subject of their major at school, their parents history, let alone their forefathers history and especially not their country. The mortifying lack of responsibility by the elders in this country to teach the young generation about their lives, their fathers' lives and their ancestors lives is wretched. In my family for example I know that my mother's parents came on a boat from Italy but I know nothing of their lives in Italy or their families in Italy. This is not my mother's fault, nor is it her mother's fault but however my mother's mother's fault for refusing to tell stories of the old country to her children. I am grateful to my both of my parents for having an interest themselves in our history and for telling me stories of their childhood. I hope that everyone will not try to forget their past, that they will hold onto it, even the hard parts. That way at least they can learn from their own lives and maybe their children will learn from it as well.

it is polite propriety

You could classify me as a "good girl" a "nice girl" or any other sweet adjective. Working in customer service I am nice, sweet or good to many people in a day. In my past friendships I have been on the giver, or better put the used one in the relationships. As I was watching Brothers and Sisters Sunday night the end one of the Characters puts aside what she wants to be doing in order to be polite to another and I couldn't help but seeing my present and past in this act. How many times a day to I talk to someone a little longer than I wanted to let someone use my cell phone when I don't necessarily want them too. Much of this is my job, and I understand that and its fine. But I do still struggle with getting a person to stop talking and when I finally do get them to stop I feel like a total heel. Once I was actually just short with a salesperson who came in to sell me credit card processing. Once he left my mother reprimanded me for being rude, it made me feel worse than I had already. The point I am trying to make is that well I just don't know how to be in control, in charge, direct, assertive without feeling or apparently coming across a total B*. And unfortunately many times the the act of the smiling face always caring even though someone has had the same problems for the 3 years of them coming in here and dumping on me, breaks down while I'm among my family and friends and I take the pent up angst on them in shortness, arguments etc. I feel horrid when this eruption occurs because it's not their fault I've been burying my emotions all day. I hope someday I'll be able to put into practice that in my future the most important person is me and I have to do what is best for me, no matter how selfish I feel, sometimes I have to look out for number one. And hopefully when I have mastered this my family and friends will suffer less, the last people I want to hurt.