8/11/2019 Prometheus:Epimetheus Speaks 19931028_201900

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8/11/2019 Prometheus:Epimetheus Speaks 19931028_201900

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we're limited and constrained by these concrete forms in many ways. Sometimesa look in someone's eyes expresses more than they can ever say. How can youdescribe something like that? How can you convey that experience?

Let's say that you do express everything you could ever hope to.You're the most eloquent and communicative speaker in the world. You approachthe masses with your plan for world peace, and everybody gives you a blanklook. "Why is that?" you may ask. "What happened?" Unfortunately, there canbe no communication if there is no understanding - the party you communicate tomust also understand what you're saying, or all is lost. Herein lie the rootsof miscommunication - the number one cause of conflict in the human arena. I'mof the opinion that most of our problems stem from this plague ofmiscommunication; entering the information age unreservedly certainly won'thelp the situation any.

The way I see it, people and their areas of individual experience arelike spheres, or rather, the sum total of a person and all their experiencescan be expressed as an extended field of knowledge. When two peoplecommunicate, what they're really doing is interacting with each other'sfields, sharing experiences (the best they can relate them), transferringthoughts. But it's only a limited area of interaction, at best - there's awhole level of the person that isn't explored. The famed psychologist Joharicame up with a concept known as "Johari's Window", which represented knowledgeof one's self and knowledge of others. It looks like those four square genetic

diagrams we all did in high school biology. If you don't know what I'm talkingabout yet, forget about it, because I can't do a diagram. But, if you rememberthe bio stuff, this is how it goes - in the first square, there's a part of youthat you know, and that other people know. In the second, there's a part thatyou know that other people don't know about. The third is what people knowabout you that you don't realize, and the fourth is a part of you that nobodyknows (not even you).

What I'm really saying is that there really isn't a way to convey someexperiences; there are certain things that people go through that can't beshared, no matter how hard we try. A white man can't ever really know whatit's like being black, of hispanic, or asian. A man really can't know whatit's like to be a woman. This sounds like obvious stuff, but if you really

think about it, these are examples of experiences that can't be fullycommunicated. We say that we are sympathetic when we share an experience, butin a sense, we never really can be sympathetic - we can't share exactly thesame experience. At best, we can only ever be empathetic, where we attemptto understand through listening and sharing, without having direct experience.

We are all alone. We can't get out of our heads, we can't escape ourselves, and we can't ever truly know anyone (including ourselves). Doesn'tsound too hopeful, huh? It's not meant to be. There are plenty of people outthere who go their entire lives without ever truly communicating with anotherperson. The thing is, there really isn't any other way to learn more, aboutothers, about ourselves, or about anything. I could preach and stress theimportance of communication and doing everything we can to improve it, but it

seems like a blatantly obvious thing to say. So instead, I'll bid adieu,leaving you a little more confused, and hopefully more thoughtful. Untilnext time...