Achieving Communication Essence

In Herman Hesse's famous book, "Siddhartha," the title character is described as having the singular goal of becoming empty; specifically, to empty himself of such things as desire, dreams, joy and sorrow in order that he be open to "miracles in unselfed thinking." Why, you might wonder, would any one want to do that? Siddhartha would respond by saying to attain such a state would allow him to achieve his innermost essence. To that, I say, "good luck." Particularly in a world today filled with far too much anger, intolerance and willful ignorance, experiencing most any level of inner peace sounds awfully good.

To play-off  Hesse and his character, when it comes to communication, it seems there are two primary goals that all of us share: to empty ourselves and to fill ourselves. By "empty," I refer to our desire to be heard, share our thoughts and knowledge. By "fill," I mean our desire to learn, collect information and interact with others. For one to achieve what Hesse might refer to as a kind of  communication essence, it seems they would need to strike a equal and sustained balance of maintaining both goals at the same time. Emptying one's self while not filling themselves equally, for instance, would represent an imbalance of communication.

My sense of the current communication climate within the United States is that a great imbalance exists. There is far too much emptying and not nearly enough filling. Many folks seem to want to be heard but are not nearly are as interested in hearing or listening. In other words, there is far too much talking at and not nearly enough talking with. With such an imbalance, it is not a surprise that there is as much tension, miscommunication, anger, and outright deceit as there is throughout our nation's landscape. The answer is for all of us to do more about striking a better balance; achieving greater communication essence. Doing so won't eliminate disagreement, but it sure will take much of the air out of the tension that we are witnessing and experiencing.