The Art Of Communication

Anecdotal Illustrations Of Scenarios Effective Communicators Would Probably Avoid

Alas, I have been somewhat remiss in my regular Steemit postings for the last couple of days. This has absolutely nothing to do with our recent Hardforkage, payouts, or hurt feelers! Nay! It had everything to do with life innundating me like pine needles on my freshly raked lawn after a windstorm.

That said, I have so missed posting the last couple of days, interacting with all of my favorite and new Steemians, and posting whatever pops into my mind on the content front for any particular day.

Today, I am going to share with you all a few little tidbits about communication. The theme has come up in my life quite a bit this week. Let us refer now to the picture above. I picked up the flyers in that picture on Tuesday morning when I grabbed the library's mail. I also giggled the two blocks from the Post Office to library like someone who had imbibed on a touch of nitrous oxide.

"Communicate! With Tact And Professionalism!"

Aside from the fact that the advertising department sent three flyers to one branch, all addressed to people that are not employed at said branch, smacked of no small amount of hilarity to me in the irony department, the mis-directed communication seminar flyers got me to thinking about how we all communicate with each other.

One of my favorite communication styles is that of obedient yet passive aggressive. An employee at the local animal shelter totally embodied this particular technique:

Another form of interpersonal relations was observed by yours truly when I was at a local den of inebriation for a relative's birthday party. I don't usually grace the doors of such places, but I do like to sing, and that did happen in abundance (Sorry kids, no video footage...). One local woman that had an unfortunate lack of dental coverage spanked a hygiene-challenged fellow in a game of pool. This would have been a small ripple in grand scheme of things, but then my old friend communication came out to play.

Actual dialogue:

Spake the lovely lady: "Oh my dear fellow, coitus to you, I kicked your Old Testament Equine most solidly. Tee Hee."

Replied the strapping male: "Intercourse upon you! You coitus-ing female dog!" (This line was repeated again and again for maximum effect)

All of this occurred whilst a strange, graceful, yet wobbly interaction played out between the two characters. Adorned with pool sticks they did their dance of inebriated communication and billiard domination.

The amusement was real.

I was far more kindly in my communication with this tree than the two spoken-of, impaired individuals above were with each other.

My final example of communication hails from my father, who is currently setting up the timber falling operation in a logging camp on an island in the Alaskan wilderness. His life experience is playing out like an unscripted reality show of absurdity. He told me this little gem Friday night, all while eating a giant Tootsie roll after having to fire five guys, and I feel like it contains a little communication tidbit that we can all utilize.

"So, I have this guy working for me, he's a little different." Dad began.

"How so?" I responded with barely concealed intrigue.

"Well he jumped out of the crew bus and said, 'I saw a Kooshdakhaa! Saw one twice! You just throw some rocks at him; he'll go back into the water!'"

"A what?" Dad replied, at this point he said that he often feels like a character off of the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

"A Kooshdakhaa! A Shapeshifter! Like Sasquatch! Just throw rocks, Ron, he'll go back into the water!" replied the obscure creature-sighting employee.

So there you have it, if you ever come across something or someone that is bothering you, an effective form of communication is to: Throw rocks at them, they'll go back into the water.

My daughter and I concealing ourselves from any shapeshifters in our vicinity, and yes, we had a stash of rocks in our blanket of concealment...

I am going to try to use that phrase this week when someone is acting remiss in their communicative skills and see if it has any power as a tool of communication. I sometimes think confusing a communicatee with a bit of babbling nonsense really redirects things!

And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's fairly effective at communicating iPhone.