Chiweenie

One of the unspoken goals in life for any generation is to make the world a better place for those that follow. One never, for example, hears someone declare, "I want to make life tougher or worse for my children." or "My goal is make sure my children and grandchildren have to struggle even harder than I did." While I am not saying there are not those who don't think those kind of thoughts, one always hears the opposite sentiment expressed: "I want to make the world a better place." or "If I can make life at least little bit easier for my children, then I will be happy." Thank goodness for that. Thank goodness folks, generally, are striving to make our tomorrows better than our todays.

This, then, leads me to the title of this blog entry: chiweenie. What, one may understandably ask, is that?  It is the result of  crossbreeding a chihuahua and a dachshund. Believe it or not, people have actually done that and, as a result, we now have chiweenies roaming the earth. No doubt, such a decision was made to try and make a better breed of dog, something cuter, more lovable, and easier to handle. All I can say to that is not all efforts to make the world a better place are successful or well thought-out. Nevertheless, I will begrudgingly concede the hearts of those who created the chiweenie were in the right place.

These kind of efforts represent building blocks; men and women working hard to build onto and fortify the foundations of life that have been put down before them. This certainly applies to communication. Scholars and practitioners before me devoted much time and intellectual energy toward creating ways for people in my generation to better understand and carry out our communication efforts. From my vantage point, they did well. We have an array of theories, books and case studies from which to draw as we plan our own efforts to connect with and motivate others. Hopefully we are doing the same for the next generation even if an occasional chiweenie is part of the mix.