After trekking across four time zones within a one week span, by both sky-sailing and automobiling, I am forced to take yet another hiatus from my vagabond life for a semester in Nebraska. It's time to play with the Midwest wind and drink in the expanse of blue sky. This time of year, we also have a chance to reconnect with all those people of old (that is, friends/professors/acquaintances/Lutherans we haven't seen since last semester).
And so the generic conversations go:
-"Hey! How was your summer?" [Hug]
-"Oh, hi! It was really good! I worked at _____. And went on vacation to _____!"
-"Wow! That sounds fun! I worked at _____. Summer went by so fast! . . . Anyway, what classes do you have?"
And so I traveled 4,135 miles to arrive at the Station of Communication Frustration.
This metaphorical train station is characterized with superficial palavering, apathetic droll, and other weapons of language destruction, aided by Facebook and text messaging. After a summer that both grew and stretched me in a myriad of ways, it hasn't been a piece of cake to settle back into the same old life and relationships of last year. Communicating this to my peers, who mostly return to their designated space in last year's drudge, has been, well, frustrating.
And frankly, sometimes I wonder if communicating the truth is really worth all the trouble. Or even what people want.
Isn't language supposed to be a medium through which we can make sense of the world? Make sense of ourselves? Express what that 'self' is?
Thankfully, God always provides a way out of idiotic temptations (1 Corinthians 10:13). And this particular way we can call the Writer's Express.
This is real communication. I will not just gloss over the past couple of months like they didn't happen and slip back to last year's cycle of circumlocution. I will ruthlessly question everything. I will write this blog. I will write poetry. I will write letters. I will write prayers (Philippians 4:4-9).
And hopefully, after riding this Express, I will be able to make a little more sense of this world, in light of the only TRUTH that exists- that is God's truth.
Liz, I completely understand you. If there is one thing I hate about coming back to school, it's those generic 'how was your summer?' conversations. They are just like the same old, 'hey, how are you; good, and you?"' conversations we have every other day, except these only happen for the first two weeks of school.
ReplyDeleteAbout what you said about the train station (which was beautiful, by the way), do you remember all that Dr. Thurber said in Shakespeare about language and life? I wonder if there's a connection here, too.
Sometimes, I feel like I am living two separate lives: one at "home" in Texas, and the other in Nebraska. When I talk to my family or friends from high school while I'm at school, I get a weird sort of 'collision' feeling; almost like I am cheating, in a way.
I love what you said about the 'writer's express;' cheers to that.
I am so blessed to know you.
“And frankly, sometimes I wonder if communicating the truth is really worth all the trouble. Or even what people want.”
ReplyDeleteI hate ‘palavering,’ as you say, yet that is what half my conversations are. Maybe I’m just not good at talking… I’m trying to improve, really.
Somehow, getting to any sort of meat with another human being seems to require some sort of preliminary verbal dancing, like you have to woo the conversation into something more meaningful. It’s like we’re making it troublesome to get to the truth so that each other is aware that truth is worth the trouble. But so often, people don’t have the time (apparently), and truth isn’t really worthwhile just then. And so we split prematurely and go our separate ways, and poor Truth was the only one in the exchange not allowed the grace to speak.
Maybe it’s just that I’m afraid that people won’t care to hear my truth, so I make it hard to get to. And maybe I need to be more diligent in listening to others’ truth.
I know a few people who can always just direct any conversation into something playful and meaningful. I love talking to these people because it always feels like an invitation to have new thoughts, think new things, etc. Go through something together.
ReplyDeleteI live for that.