Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

I'm thinking once again about the Tower of Babel. Do you remember the story in Genesis? Mankind is getting a bit cocky and decides to build this immense tower in order to reach heaven. The Old Testament God is a bit perturbed by this hubris and smashes the tower to bits and then to ensure that humanity is unable to cooperate and try it again this God creates multiple and various languages and scatters us around the globe.

There are folks, often atheist types, like to point to this story as an example of the mean spirited and petty nature of God, apparently ignoring that it is yet another Judeo-Christian myth that is explaining how we got to be human in all our diversity.

The New Testament "flip side" story would be, of course, Pentecost in which the Holy Spirit descends and the disciples begin to preach in different languages and so everyone hearing is able to understand. At the Episcopal churches I have attended, the tradition has been to have the gospel reading on Pentecost be presented in as many different languages as the congregation can comfortably speak.

With the Pentecost story, the language barrier created in Genesis is transcended and we can all understand each other...or can we...really.

I am a person who lives by my alleged ability to communicate. I tell long winded anecdotes to make incredibly trivial little points in conversation. I write my blog. I get wonderfully snarky at times on Facebook. Yet, not a day seems to go by where no matter how hard I try and explain something, the other person simply does not comprehend my meaning.

My friend Maria commented the other day on one of my posts below. My response was "Was that really what I was saying?" The subsequent comments waxed philosophical about how we put out our thoughts and they are always reinterpreted by the recipients. The discussion in this case was in regards to blog posts, sermons, and the like. I often wonder if in reality very little of what we say is ever interpreted and received in a manner that really creates true understanding between two people.

Fresh out of college I worked for the Japanese government at their Consulate office in Chicago. Not long after I started, we were joined by a man who was part of the Hiroshima Prefecture government bureaucracy. All of the others were part of their State department and had received extensive English language training. Mr. Kono and I worked side by side for a number of months before finally he said, "My English is really not so good." I asked him about how much of what I say he understands and he replied, "About 10 percent."

For all this time I had been operating under the false assumption that we were communicating. The longer I live on this linguistically confused planet, the more I think that even in English, most people understand only about 50-60% of what I am trying to express.

The most obvious moments occur on Facebook where space is limited and verbosity is not welcomed. The same is true with blog comment pages. Tempers often flare and it is often when we least had intended to be snarky that we ignite the biggest fire storms. However, even in our day to day interactions with people our random comments seem to be misinterpreted, misunderstood, and mistaken for something else entirely.

How many of us simply give up and stop trying to share the really important thoughts and feelings? How many spouses can no longer communicate beyond, "Pass the salt, please."? How many relationships wither and die for a lack of understanding between the individuals?

Are you familiar at all with the movie Love Actually? There a number of story lines running simultaneously throughout the film. I find the plot involving Colin Firth the most heart warming. Early in the film he comes home to find his girlfriend in bed with his brother. He leaves London and goes to the coast (which coast I don't remember). He engages the services of a beautiful Portuguese woman who speaks no English. Through out the film, we the audience watch as they try to communicate with each other. The scene towards the end where he proposes to her in broken Portuguese is one of the most romantic scenes in the movies IMHO.

Perhaps when we remember the fallibility of our common tongue, how easily our words are misinterpreted, when we remember to shut up and really try and listen to what the other is saying, then maybe we can begin to understand each other and move forward. Peace.

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