The Communication Barrier

In day to day activities, there's an invisible barrier that follows us all around, and it's the barrier of communication. Some people feel its presence more than others, but it is there. It's not an obstacle so much as a garbler, a distorting layer through which all words become subject to uncertainty and interpretation, and may become totally unintelligible despite all your best efforts. These are great thoughts for a potential educator of young children to be having, aren't they? Actually children are easy to talk to as they accept a lot of things at face value, thank goodness!

The garble barrier is also circumvented, ironically, by translating into another language. In my example, as a Spanish writer, often most of the potential for confusion is removed due to the logicality of the target language. It's pretty hard to confuse when you translate into Spanish; It's also almost impossible to be funny, but that's another story. (There's a reason why so many Spanish stories and movies are serious and/or tragedic.) Just don't ask me to understand something spoken as that's even more vulnerable to the garbling effect than English.

Oh, the perils of communication, always there but never crippling. What proportion of words will get converted into 'bungle bungle bungle' today? Did I actually just say 'salmon' in the middle of explaining bicycle gears to that bored looking woman? What did that man mean when he started going on about the mesmerising effect of rutabagas? What does it all mean? Yes, that was a rutabaga reference, you were not mistaken. I have been referencing rutabagas ever since they were referenced in 'The Belgariad', one of my primal early reading loves. What are you doing reading this, anyway, go read 'The Belgariad'! Sheesh, you just can't find good readers in this day and age...

It's bizarre that correpondence is one of the keystones of my existence, considering how much I think gets garbled in the process. Yes, bizarre, but it does happen. Welcome to the garbled mess that is the Quirky Muffin. You are now a correspondent. Don't be afraid, for it will all be alright.

O.