The need to communicate

Today, I would like to tell you about communication. With only one addition, that this today refers also to tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and the future that awaits. For some years now, humanity has realized the importance of communication (far be it from me to consider that our ancestors had not grasped the importance of communication when painting the inside of caves). More so, humanity understood that there is an agreed modus operandi and it is best to calibrate its skills to it.

It seems to me that around me people are focusing on how the communication should be. Which is actually an honorable thing. And also the case for the growing interest of people towards learning the relevant information. I am really glad to see people making efforts in order to better communicate and trying new ways for their message to reach different types of public. Ever since internet has been included in our daily habits, we are able to access a lot of information about communication. Articles, videos, posts, on-line classes, trainings of all kinds invade our small or large screens in order to teach us new tricks, in-style tricks, older tricks that were forgotten and then rediscovered or readapted to the society we live in.

The emphasis is in solution. If you x, then y. It all sounds very tempting since we constantly find ourselves pressured by time. Still, when it comes to communication, things are a little different than the generally applied description ‘after only one spray of solution, the grease stain disappeared’. There is no such thing as universal solution for there are different needs in communication. Thus, in order to make sure that your communication needs are met, you will have to consider more than just one unknown element. Or, how I like to call it, you will have to consider transforming the unknown elements into somewhat known ones.

Whether we wish for it or not, sometimes the need to adapt makes us ready for it almost without an effort from our side. We are obliged, having so much information around, if not to apply, then at least to keep ourselves up to speed with what is new. And given that the interest is rising towards communication, we must align ourselves, too. Some are keen for assimilating and putting into practice all the theories they hear about, while others are eager to assimilate the information so that they can keep safe themselves from such theories. It all depends on how one sees things and on which side of communication one considers to be. But both categories will experience the same thing at a certain point – having to eloquently explain an idea. And thus the creative moment in communication appears.

I would not like to make an ample description of the communication techniques. Or, I won’t be making it now. But I must mention something, though. The most important thing in communication does not reside in techniques, no matter if they have been tried over and over again or they come in tens (for we know that number ten embodies perfection and humanity has been drawn to it since the dark ages).

If we want to make sure that we are in fluid communication with the others, we must firstly open up our ears. An Arabic saying beautifully highlights this: we were given two ears and only one mouth so that we could do more listening than talking.

To be willing to listen, and not to try to guess the things the person in front of us wants to utter and neither to make assumptions that since we know the person well, we can anticipate their communication needs. This is the source of true communication. Or, if you wish, it is a somewhat renouncing to prejudice regarding other people.

I wish you uninterrupted listening for a smooth communication!

97 years since Vlad Mușatescu was born. Vlad lives on!

I could not have let today, the 4^th of May, Vlad Mușatescu’s birthday, pass by like an ordinary day.

To properly celebrate him, here is below a fragment from volume number III from his “Approximate Adventures”:

‘…

At Tâncăbești, I was in the care of Penke, my wife - who obeyed to the letter the doctor’s recommendations regarding my regime- and was starting to feel much better. I was leading a normal life, without the stress of meeting impossible deadlines in publishing. I was eating lightly, mostly because I was afraid. That one of my veins would pop up in my body. Besides the ‘recovery treatment’, I would work daily. I would type away at my Erika, the typing machine, but not more than one or two pages. I was translating the ‘Mystery of the yellow room’ by Gaston Leroux, when I noticed that ideas of my own were starting to take flight, somewhat preceding the series ‘The detective Conan Doi’s Adventures’. So, I felt the need to give them more thought. I found myself filled with courage, and thus embarked upon marches. By foot, not by means of ‘Bombița’, my car.

Actually, even the doctor recommended them. Marches bring health and energy.

‘Where are you going to, master?’, Penke asked me, seeing that I took my walking stick.’ Are you tired from all that typing at your typewriter?’

‘Exactly, I am going for a walk…’

And I would walk quite a big deal. Sometimes for two hours. Firstly, I would visit the toilet at the back of the garden, where I kept two packs of Kent and tried out my lungs. Just to see how they kept up with the smoking. They were up to the challenge! Being glad that my respiratory system was in good shape, after having smoked two cigarettes, I would cross the fence to the backdoor neighbor. Where I would eat two or three meatballs. Then, I would continue the visiting and go to neighbor Bibi, who would always receive me with a glass of red wine. Then, I would go and visit uncle Igoras, another kind neighbor. He would always invite me to lunch. Since it was not nice to refuse, I would eat some of the goodies on his table.

Only when I got to Penke’s lunch, made according to the doctor’s recommendations, would I be able to feel full. And, after two or three weeks, when I visited the doctor, he congratulated me:

‘Well done! That’s the way to lead a rational life! Keep up the good work. Even though you have not lost a lot of weight, you are still within the limits calculated by me. Soon, you will have no worries regarding blood pressure, extrasystoles and that pulse of yours…’

Truly convinced by the doctor’s encouragement, I kept on going. Once in a while, I exaggerated. But to my own amazement, my weight was not increasing, and remained under certain stability. I could not grasp what was happening, knowing that I had sinned in every way. I was smoking a lot, sometimes I would eat even 5 meatballs, and whenever I got to the restaurant ‘The House of Writers’, I would eat 10 grilled mici (grilled meatballs). And these were just starters for tender pork chops.

...'