Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Moving Beyond Noise

My parents were like many that try to encourage their child or children to play a musical instrument. Looking back at what seems like a hundred years ago, one Saturday morning my parents had a man over to our house who specialized in selling musical instruments. For whatever reason, he brought with him an accordion. (I have to assume he did this at the suggestion of my parents. Where they got the idea that I would be interested in learning to play this particular instrument will forever remain a mystery.) I remember the man had me strap on this thing and showing me how to run my fingers up and down the keyboard and make what can only be described as noise come out of it.

Even though with his coaching I did play a few notes, I would not characterize that as playing the accordion any more than I would describe a monkey sitting in front of a piano and banging on the key board as "playing the piano." (I say that with no disrespect intended toward monkeys.) Playing any kind of musical instrument calls for far more than simply making sounds. Such an act requires a certain level of knowledge regarding notes and scales as well as an appreciation of the discipline required in learning to play even the simplest of compositions. Most any one can produce sound but not everyone can actually play an instrument.

This brings me to communication. All of us can make sound. We can all even communicate meaning even if we are uncertain of what specific words to use. But does having the ability to do this make us communicators? My answer is "no." As it is with musical instruments, effective communicating requires knowledge of language and grammar and even an ability to see/hear things through the eyes/ears of others. Without that knowledge base, generally the result is not all that different than what I produced as a child with that accordion. These days there are many noise makers in the world.  Is there any one who does not believe we need less of those and more actual communicators? As a people, we need to move beyond the ability to make noise. 





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