Communication

“Have you ripped your vest?”

“How?”

“You’ve got a hole in the back of it.”

“I’ve got a hole in the back of my vest?”

“Aye.”

When conversations are longer than they need to be, it always makes me giggle. Above is a genuine conversation between two people I shared a train with one day. I love listening to conversations that go around the houses- although I do admit that taking part in them can be really frustrating, especially when you are trying to get somewhere! But it makes me think- in everyday conversation we can all go around the houses before ending up at our destination.

But change that to text language, which is on the rise as the favoured prose of young people, and its a very different story. “missd U 2day, call l8r”. Short, sharp and straight to the point.

I wonder where language is in all this; and where it will be. In many ways, we are writing more than we ever did through the joys of Twitter, Facebook, texts, emails and even blogs like this one.

But what language are we using? Our language changes – it always has; that’s what makes it alive- and we all move with the times. Microsoft Word, for example, insists on correcting me for putting a ‘u’ in ‘colour’ and an ‘s’ in ‘prioritise’. And so Americanisms encroach on our English. But text language will soon take over too and we will find speed will become increasingly more important than flair.

We may even lose those beautiful silent letters so stolen from our Latin and French ancestors.

We may be writing more, which is great. But at what cost?

Joyous Jubilee?

What are your thoughts on the monarchy, I wonder? Love them? Hate them? Totally indifferent?

Whatever your thoughts, or even your politics, there is such a great atmosphere in the air, as street parties happen, as entertainment rolls on in the local square and as people seek to reach out to their neighbours. Cooking and baking is piled high on tables on the streets as more residents come out of their homes and add more to the plethora of goodies to choose from.

A local street party

People from all over get involved in community crafts as huge towers are constructed out of cardboard boxes and raised high in the square. People chat, amicably and warmly and catch up on each other’s lives; even if they saw them just that morning. Maybe for others, old friendships are rekindled or repaired as the opportunity arises to talk about everything and nothing, all at the same time.

A tower made of cardboard boxes – and it got even bigger!

Love it or hate it, the Jubilee celebrations have created something really important, and often missing from our twenty-first century lives.

Welcome to Community.