Good morning... hold on to your coffee cup. Someone's got something really important to say!
Mark and I have only known each other for less than 8 months now... and we have a new internet marketing business together.
So... think back... to that boss, significant other, or partner-from-hell you so fondly remember... just for a moment.
Now consider this person-from-hell is in a full court press trying to persuade, inform, or convince you of something or another... and you're not able to politely interrupt, interject, or get one word in edgewise... as there's just no stopping this person - once they're in full stride... on a roll.
The following chat discussion between Mark and me one morning - a few months back - started out as a humorous attempt by me to demonstrate to Mark that I was up-and-at-'em before he was... and was ready to seize the day!
Previously, we'd had some pretty funny discussions about the one-sidedness of a typical sales letter online... in which our only choice was to buy into a marketer's or a copywriter's message or not - with no other option available to us.
Mark, especially, found all this particularly hysterical... and some of our best belly laughs together have been at the expense of some sales letter writer's all-out effort to get us to whip out a credit card... in effect, to steamroll us into making a buying decision where incomplete information was being provided... and there didn't seem to be any room for negotiation either.
Here we are being sold a horse - and no horse-tradin's being allowed!
My friends... in Texas, this type of behavior, is really frowned upon... let me tell ya.
Anyway, just pity poor Mark, because, you must know, he really does have the partner from hell!
He's often mystified by poor Lark. And he'll wonder why I ever saved this chat in the first place.
Maybe he'll laugh just remembering it!
So, with this being said... please do... enjoy our little chat... :)
Laurence says:
Ohayou gozaimasu... is formal Japanese for Good Morning... and millions of people on our planet know this language well enough to understand its meaning. However...
Laurence says:
... in the U.S. and in Europe, in Africa and Central and South America, many millions more do not fathom the meaning for good morning in the Japanese brain... except to, perhaps, grunt... smile... or nod an acknowledgment of a Japanese person's presence in the A.M. hours...
Laurence says:
... much in the way we imagine members of different human tribes once did millions of years ago. We are here together in a virtual community where we cannot assume ANY of us even... speak the same language... much less fully comprehend and fully connect to common symbols (words, sentences, phrases, etc.) used in the language we call "English".
Laurence says:
Therefore, even as you may be able to read this collection of organized symbols, it would be presumptuous for any of us to automatically assume actual communication is really occurring...
Laurence says:
... because much is implied and inferred, though little - so far - has been written or read which we can identify as being substantative or even a propos to this occasion.
Laurence says:
To think about what has just been communicated, comprehend, if we are allowed or are able, this tiny bit of information.
Laurence says:
Before this sentence, count up the number of letter, word and punctuation symbols used to create the words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs.
Laurence says:
To quantify these is to invite a closer examination into the minds reflecting on these pieces of, presumably, a larger symbolic picture.
Laurence says:
For what purpose, to what end, might this exercise serve us? Are we to assume something - or anything - of value might be gained in this moment of our time together?
Laurence says:
How might the language - the instrument of our communication - be miscommunicated, or misconstrued, even now, while it is we have read this much so far?
Laurence says:
How many of us have been prompted to move away from this exercise in communication already?
Laurence says:
Can any inferences or assumptions, any claims of beneficence, be implied or stated thus far in our narration? Do these words illustrate for us anything which might enjoin us in a commonality of meaning and purpose?
Laurence says:
How might each of us still here proceed with this incomplete narrative in ways which will unite us and empower us - individually, and as a group?
Laurence says:
Shall we write and read more - at this very moment in time we have together? Engaged, as we are, in an exercise of disjointed communication with each other?
Laurence says:
Let's consider more. Notice how each of us is being drawn deeper into our narrative? So long as these symbols are being created these same symbols are bringing us closer. We cannot say we are being united, nor can we imply we are being divided, though it might be fair to say we might never be brought closer than we are right now.
Laurence says:
Language - or other symbols of communication - does not always accomplish our aims, does it?
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." - Oscar Wilde
Laurence says:
"First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure." - Mark Twain
Laurence says:
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli
Laurence says:
"Then there was the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches." - W.I.E. Gates
Laurence says:
As a shared experience let's suppose we extract some value from this exercise... understanding, of course, from the outset, that each of us will ascribe a different value, or a nuance of value, to the symbols - or words - presented here.
Laurence says:
Let's examine the central idea expressed in this equation:
Creation of Order = Initiation of Chaos
Laurence says:
"A life not examined is not worth living." - Socrates
Laurence says:
"Let's put that which we might call our busy-ness aside for awhile. Instead, let's make some history today!" - Lark
Laurence says:
Good morning, Mark!
Mark says:
morning
[End of chat]
Phone's ringing
The wife's speaking.
The dog's barking.
I forgot what I was saying...
... or thinking.
And Mark never even saw this conversation piece... until I pointed it out to him that afternoon... as it had been much too tall a tale to fit all at once onto his chat screen... for him to ever really notice! :)
Monday, February 12, 2007
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