MODERN TALKING

We’re all dumb nowadays. We play deaf and use our hands for speaking. We speak in signs, in keyboard ciphers, multiplying witnesses and intermediaries on the way. Our conversations have become more meaningful, less ephemeral. They are more than just the fodder for thought and memory. They’re dangerous, like everything that never disappears. Once you write something down, it starts living its own life – a butterfly-effect one, full of repercussions and interpretations. You can’t deny anything anymore, not in the safe, old-fashioned, “I-never-said-that” kind of way. Yes, you did! Look, idiot! LOOK what you SAID!

As ridiculous as it sounds (or reads), YES! We have lived to the day when conversations can be seen, but not heard. And therefore they can be misunderstood to one’s heart’s desire.. After all, they are only valid in real time and never after. And only at that very time can they be understood. And only by those involved. And sometimes they simply can’t be and that’s that. 

Lots of limitations, wouldn’t you say? This modern sign language is most people’s second, not first, remember? And therefore, no one’s ever as good at using their hands for speaking as those less fortunate ones, not given any other choice.

So maybe it’s not worth saving your breath and involving hands in conversations, hiring expensive intermediaries who charge you extra every time you're mis-taken. Maybe writing down the IT you MEAN should be banned. It’s no use. Recall the limitations. Recall the many times you’ve failed.

But you still LIKE it. Can’t argue with that.

Save your breath (if you like) and feel free to use your hands to communicate. But do it properly and directly. Face to face, hand in hand, skin on skin. That’s what your hands are really for. And maybe, but just maybe, you'll find an application for your mouth, too. And a slip of the tongue will earn you a small fortune rather than cost one.