Communication

The art of communication is so much more than speech. Mankind has had the desire to communicate since the beginning of thought. An inherent need to share ideas, feelings, directions, concepts and more.

Before language there was grunting, pointing and actions, never the less, the message was passed from one to others. In time we developed words to ease this challenge. Then writing took its place and is still considered one of the best mediums of today. Then we got the phone so we could talk again in ‘real’ time, now we have emails, Instant Messaging, voice and video chatting and conferencing as just a small part of the WWW, otherwise know as the World Wide Web. But lets not forget the Cell and Satellite phones, not to mention the myriad of pagers, smart DPA’s and smart phones and what else is out there. I don’t doubt that soon we will have the option of a chip implanted directly into our heads so we can just ‘think’ of the person you wish to call. And it’s all to communicate with others so that we can share our thoughts.

The word communicate somehow brings to mind, at least to me, the art of verbally expressing one’s ideas however, we as humans, communicate in so many ways it would be near impossible to list them all. If you think about it for a moment, almost everything we do, every action or inaction carries a message if we take the time to look at it. From the clothes we ware to the cars we drive, everything says what and who we are.

And yet, everyday we make countless decisions while we go about living our lives pretending to ‘fit in’ with the rest of humanity and all the while, we are secretly thinking to ours selves - how different we are to those around us. We want to be heard, but at the same time, we covet some very secret and guarded thoughts and feeling we don’t dare share with anyone. To do so would leave us naked and vulnerable. So we choose what we want others to know and not the same folks know the same things about anyone of us, because we only divulge certain things to specific persons of specific standings on our little hierarchical scheme of things.

At times we harbor such a smugness and exuberance about ourselves, some of it leaks out to spill on those standing too close and we beam in its glory – because we know, at that time, we are better than them - yet we hold our tongue to not offend. Then there are days when we don’t feel adequate enough to be included in the description of a human. We are so down on ourselves with lost feelings due to emotional torment and without proper guidance or direction or answers, that we just want to crawl into a hole were we can not be found and die – while we secretly wish that a special someone (and we have them in mind at that time), will see through the torment, have the answers and to seek you out of your desperation, to make you feel as though you belong to someone or something. And that would be great, because by then, you just want to feel something again! But maybe that’s just me?

From the moment we wake, we decide on what to wear, what to eat, how we travel, how we carry ourselves, how we react and interact with others and almost always we are secretly thinking the reasons why we do - the what we do. All of this is communicating to others by actions and the decisions of those actions.

Take for example; a young virile single man, heads to his beaten pickup truck with ratty looking cloths and as he walks, he struts because he feels hot and winks at any girl he gets a chance to. He’s content with himself and why not.

A married woman with kids, steps from her door onto her drive wearing a housecoat, slippers, curlers in hair, a screaming baby under an arm and may or may not have - the look of content pulsating her inner most feelings - for all the world to see.

The reasons would be as diverse as the individuals we see but no more diverse as our own actions and reactions upon the witness of such.

It’s all communication in the most basic of forms – the human psyche.
It summons the question - What is art? From the most irreplaceable paintings to the simplest of sketches, from the multitudes of various forms in sculpture, literature, TV, theatre, landscaping and gardening to the everyday events and the cloths we choose to wear, all these things have one common ground – the conveyance and expresion of thought and feeling. Because any good work of art is something that invokes and brings forth emotion and with it - thought to the viewer.

Often the more radical the departure from the norm, the greater its influence, why? - because it simply invokes more extreme emotion and therefore, the better the art?

Every notice how a trends start? It maybe from someone who is desperate to be noticed or it could be from someone who is determined to make a statement (kind of the same thing don’t you think) - then has the strength to carry it out. And sure enough at first they are followed by a chorus of laughter and likely ridiculed for it, but if they stick with it they soon get a following of other would be trendsetters.

This happens because although what ever that person has done to stand out, has gained so much attention and therefore notice, that they gain a respect that others what to get ‘in on’. All that ‘fame and grandeur’ for so little, so they intern, copy the very thing that the ‘now famous individual’ did to get some attention for themselves.

Others see this growing development and what at first seemed shocking, now takes on a different flavor. An allure of bravado and strength of self and in time many others join in the ranks of the shocking and before you know it, what was at first so insane or even demonic, a thing you initially thought you would never in your wildest dreams do, you now find appealing. Of course for many, by the time they decide to join in the ranks of the ‘now’ excepted fade and the cultural norm, it is so old that they are ridiculed for changing their ways. Time after all, is the true judge of relevance. Not to mention the fact that by now, there are at least ten more things even more radically trend setting and thought provoking for the ‘in’ crowd of the day. And of course that original individual who once fostered a growing crowd might have by now, got so bored with being sought after for his earlier radical thinking, has reverted back into obscurity, because now he wants to be appreciated for what’s inside and not what he’s done or what he owns, and without knowing it, he has started a new trend. Will it work? It matters not because to him, that was never his intent. All he wanted to do was to be himself and be unique. He wanted to celebrate his uniqueness by doing something so different he would be set aside from the ‘norm’ because he felt he was special. In short, he was comfortable enough with himself to be his own person, he never meant to start a trend.

Unfortunately this is so misunderstood in society. Most of us are so afraid of not being excepted by those around them and afraid of not fitting in, that we on the average, do nothing out of the ordinary so as to not upset the ‘fit’. But we soon get bored with our life and all we see, so we spend much time dreaming and wishing for more and don’t know why.

The mistake is thinking that the event, token or action of others who set the trend was the thing to do. After all, it got all kinds of attention and therefore they had to do it too to be – well – cool or at least excepted. It worked for him so it might work for me too. Look at that, Dave bought a new toy that goes fast over water – everybody’s talking about it, it’s way cool – I have to get one of those things too. These are the kinds of traps so easy to fall into. We got to such a point of judging someone for what they have, that we tend to look down on those, including ourselves, who do not have what’s expected to be the norm. And in so many ways the ‘norm’ is a measure of finance. Meanwhile the real reason that other guy was able to set the norm is completely foreign to them.

It’s not that a guy wares an ear-ring (so excepted now that it’s old), or died his hair blue, shaved his head or filed his teeth. It’s that he or she had the strength of character and belief in themselves to carry out what they wanted to do without guilt.

It’s the strength of the individual being ‘one with self’ and ‘one with nature’ that sent the message ‘I am strong enough, proud enough and free enough to be me’ that started the trend. It’s not really what he said or did or wore or owns, it was his strength and conviction that said and communicated: ‘look at me – I know what I want and where I’m going’ - and the others followed - because they didn’t.