Abstractionitis

Have you ever had the urge to grab the shoulders of someone you are having a conversation with and say "I have no idea what you are trying to say!" Instead you just nodded and smiled, right? Classic.

  

Dan Pallotta writes about this problem of misunderstanding in this article.

 So, today with this post, I kind of decided to think outside the box and exceed blog-reader expectation by introducing a new concept, IIC (Improving Interpersonal Communication), which focuses on the way humans, using synergy, send messages to one another through a sort of mode of communication called words.

If you're still reading, you're either admirably loyal or pitiably bored.

That painstakingly long and boring sentence exhibits every "strain" of the "epidemic" Pallotta says is inundating the business world. But the problem is more widespread than that. It affects all of us.

Have any of these strains affected your communication? How can you combat them? As a creative writer, I sometimes find myself guilty of abstractionitis. I have to remind myself that figurative language should always enhance communication.

And for dealing with people around you who insist on using unclear language to mask their insecurity and stupidity, Pallota suggests a candid response: "I don't have any idea what you just said to me."

 Like mom always said, honesty really is the best policy. Keep it real, everyone. (Did you really think I could sign off this post without at least a couple overused cliches?)

Also, does anyone know what a Vally Girl is? It's weird, because I know what the term means, But I have no idea where it originated.

How many holidays?

Americans are funny. First we celebrate a holiday dedicated to gratitude. Then we empty ourselves of funds and sanity in a mess of madness called Black Friday. If that’s not enough, we exercise our exhausted credit cards once again for Cyber Monday. Saturday was feeling left out until the recent advent of its own holiday: Small Business Saturday. Although some may see it as just another excuse to spend, I support Small Business Saturday for two reasons.

1.       I appreciate alliteration.

2.       I believe entrepreneurship is the heart of our country.

Think: we just celebrated thanksgiving. Why did those Pilgrims come over here anyway? One reason was to create a community, a “New England.”  The gutsiest adventurers this country has seen set a precedent of entrepreneurship to be followed by Americans through the generations.

Not that I don’t see the caveats of the American Dream—greed, materialism, etc. What I do see is that most moms and pops are more concerned with paying the rent than clawing their way to wealth and fame. The majority of small business owners want to serve their community; the problem is that the community’s not serving them.

But small business affects more than just communities.  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says “small businesses have played an important role in fueling past economic recoveries.”

If the government follows through with backing small businesses and consumers follow suit, the heart of our economy might become strong enough to pump enough blood to provide a much-needed economic turnaround.

Unthankful

Maybe I’m a pessimist, but Thanksgiving reminds me how often I’m not thankful. It’s a good thing, though, because it inspires me to quit complaining for more than one day a year.   

Cultivating an attitude of thankfulness isn't easy, but sometimes simple things like writing down what you're thankful for can help.

Arts and crafts time! This project is super easy. They suggest writing memories on a daily calendar and reusing it every year. Instead, wouldn’t it be cool to write something you’re thankful for every day? In the years to come you could not only consider what you’re thankful for on that particular day, but look back on your blessings from years past.

Try it. Maybe all that stamping will burn some of those extra calories. Then reward all that hard work with another piece of pumpkin pie. 

Murder, She Wrote

This week when I was studying for a test I ran into a problem: I couldn’t read my own writing.

Time to start taking notes on the laptop.

Here’s an elegy for handwriting.

And I was like, "woe!"

 “Woe is me,” cries the college grad as he flips through the channels (daytime TV is so lame!) and eats Mom’s leftover fried chicken.
 
He pulls out his iPhone and checks his bank account. 3.54. Just enough to buy a latte! He heads to Starbucks and spends three hours  on his laptop looking quite busy and important.

He heads home and walks into the door the same time as dad, receiving a hearty backslap. “How’s the job hunt going, son?”

“Terrible,” says son dejectedly. “All of the executive positions in my field are already taken!”

To the college student/recent grad: Your cry doesn’t have to be “woe is me!” (rhyme not intended.) When you graduate, don’t be too haughty and highfalutin to just do something until you find your niche. You could learn some lessons, pay off some debt, make some contacts, and even enjoy yourself. According to this article, no one has a good job in their 20s anyway. Here’s to our 30s!

Charleston's Ship Comes In

It’s an age-old battle: the tourists against the locals. Now it’s manifesting itself in a fight between Charleston and cruise ships, according to this article.

First, can I just say I appreciate the fanny pack reference in this article? Nothing paints a more vivid picture of a hardcore tourist than a fanny pack. Not that I can legitimately dis the fanny pack. What other invention so brilliantly combines functionality and accessibility with a pretty snazzy fashion statement?

Second, since we are all entitled to our opinions, let me just throw mine out there: you’re not allowed to have an opinion on this issue unless you’ve been to Charleston.

The city has beauty that only centuries of history can create. I went there. I would have been tempted to think it was a shrimp and grits-filled mirage, but the pictures (which showcase my dismal photography skills more than the beauty of the city) prove it.

This giant ship kills the Charleston vibe from the skyline. I shudder to think of the damage the balloon hats and fanny packs will do inside of the city.

I get the point of the cruise ships. Millions of dollars will help the economy and blah blah blah and so forth. For once can something besides money be someone’s motivation? Often the easiest way to devalue things of worth is to be overly concerned with monetary value.

Mightier Than the Pen

“Pray on every occasion, before every post, before every tweet, and before every click to send. Really.”

That was a tweet by @BurkParsons retweeted by my pastor last week.

I saw it and decided if I was really interested in eliminating flippant communication, this was a good place to start. So I mentally assented.

What I didn’t realize was how much praying that would involve. Personal, work, and school email plus Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and blogging adds up to an approximate average of 3,628 prayers a day. That kind of overwhelmed me. However, there were several times this week that I was able to stop and pray before a post and it kept me from doing something stupid.

But this weekend I got impulsive with online communication and inadvertently caused confusion and hurt. It was only after the fact that I remembered I should have prayed first.

Pray before every form of online communication? That sounds pretty radical. Although not quite as radical as praying without stopping. That was the apostle’s Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians in God’s Word. 

Say what? Don’t we have other things to do, too? This section of scripture isn’t saying we should never do anything but pray. It’s referring to a constant attitude of prayer, needed now as much as ever with all of the forms of communication we have today. And sometimes, even often, that attitude does require us to drop what we’re doing and ask God for guidance.

The pen is mightier than the sword, and the web supplies the pen with more speed and scope than ever. We need Divine strength when wielding a weapon with that kind of power.

Eighty Day Layover

Living in a tiny dorm room with three other girls (“you’re hogging the mirror!” “don’t TOUCH my stuff!”)* has conditioned me to see the positive in a variety of living situations.

However, I’ve never contemplated living in an airport. But this guy did it. At least that’s what the headline says. Actually he slept in the airport hotel, but “man lives at airport” does sound cooler. 


In any case, he definitely used every opportunity to make it an interesting experience. By the tone of the article he has the entire Vancouver airport charmed.

What do you think? Living in an airport isn’t ideal, and maybe your living situation isn’t either. Are you willing to make the best of it?

*Disclaimer: My roommates never really said any of those things, but Fox News inspired me to exaggerate to make things more dramatic.

Conflict--->Change

Have you ever read one of those excessively happy books? You know, the ones that give you the same feeling you have after you eat both the cotton candy and the funnel cake at the state fair? The plot in this story is a series of happy events. The conflict is a choice between two equally happy events. It’s riveting, right?

Wrong. Apart from being humorous in its unrealistic absurdity, it’s pointless because nothing happens. What the story lacks is real conflict. Conflict produces change.

This is true in our life stories too. The Author of Life wants to see us change. He doesn’t want us to ignore hardships and pressures and tragedies; He wants to integrate them into our stories. He uses them to point us and others to the theme: redemption. Conflict in this life, a result of the sin of humanity, points to our need for freedom from that sin's bondage. The resolution to this conflict is Jesus Christ. His plan of redemption is offered to all who will take hold of it. Conflict produces change.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Phillipians 1:6

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. Ephesians 1:7-10

And Sunday Comes Afterwards

Today is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. Yes.

My college Saturday routine has metamorphisized. Freshman year it meant sleeping until noon and hanging out with friends the rest of the day. This didn’t work as well sophomore year as my schedule stacked up, so I slept in and split the friend time with study time. But this year insomnia, which often invades my nights, decided to invade my mornings too. A few weeks ago, I decided to get out of bed at 7:30 after trying to go back to sleep for an hour. It was awesome. I went for a run, stopped at my friend’s apartment, showered, studied, and wrote a paper. All before noon.

As I was running through one of the neighborhoods near campus, everything was so quiet and peaceful that I could actually hear myself think. I realized that Saturday mornings might be college’s best kept secret.

Of course I can’t underestimate the importance of rest. For some people, Saturdays are the only time they can catch up on Zs.

What’s your Saturday morning routine? Do you catch up on sleep or your to-do list?

Jack Takes Flack

Yes, I rhymed my title. Sorry.

I must begin by establishing my authority as an Ohio native. Eighteen years, born and raised in the state that claims to have “so much to discover.” Growing up, I thought we were still awaiting discovery because nothing interesting ever happens in Ohio.

Until now. Now our day has come. Media coverage around the world.

Why? Because some crazy guy didn’t shut a gate. A gate that enclosed 56 exotic animals, including lions and tigers and bears.

Oh my.

Schools closed, people locked themselves in their houses. Authorities began the roundup with ineffective tranquilizers, and (after being charged by a “tranquilized” tiger) ended up killing 49.

"We all love our animal world. And we love the people world, too. People's safety is first, and then we have animals to protect," said Jack Hanna, who apparently still values human life over animal.

But animal rights activists lunged at him like a bunch of tranquilized tigers.

Poor Jack. I learned stuff from him. I remember watching him on Saturday morning telivision and hoping to catch a glimpse of him when my family visited the Columbus Zoo (we were gold members, of course.) He’s basically famous because he loves animals. Now he’s criticized because he loves people, too.

Take that, Achilles

In Greek mythology, heels were considered a weakness; in modern times, they are power. Marilyn Monroe once said “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”

It’s true. High heels contain superhero powers. Here are four powers at your disposal when you don yours this week. (Bonus: all solve issues our country is facing today. Superhero patriotism!)

SuperStrength

I kind of stole my own thunder for this one with the intro. You know, potential for world domination and all that.

SuperHealing

“What becomes of the brokenhearted? They buy shoes.”--Mimi Pond.

Good for the economy and more sustainable than tissues.

SuperIntelligence

“When I wear high heels I have a great vocabulary and I speak in paragraphs. I'm more eloquent. I plan to wear them more often.”—Meg Ryan This certainly solves a lot of the education issues facing us today. Increase your vocab without picking up a book! Wordsworth would be proud.

SuperMorphing

“You put high heels on and you change.”--Manolo Blahnik
 

Maybe Obama should wear them…




Addendum
Here is an article about guys in heels. My personal advice to guys: play up the strength in your biceps and let us handle the heels.

Finding the Lost and Found

Today I went to the lost and found, which is located in our campus bookstore. As the clerk was taking me back to the lost and found area, she asked me, “did you find everything you needed okay?” After a little awkward silence I told her that I hoped I would. Finally the light bulb switched on. “Oops, wrong question,” she said. I told her it was fine. Because I do the same thing at my job.

Would you like whipped cream? is the standard question at the campus coffee shop where I work. They buy a latte, I ask. They purchase a gift card, I ask. They file a complaint, I ask. Then after I ask them, I repeat the process twice because I wasn’t listening the first time.

Mechanical responses are common and even sometimes expected on the job, but they happen in real life, too. For instance, how many of us really want to know how someone is doing when we ask? And we say thank you all the time, but are we grateful, really?

Let people know that you mean what you say. Flippant comments and questions steal integrity from communication. 

Just a Man

Steve Jobs was a great man, she wrote, thus fulfilling her civic duty.

Steve died on October 5, 2011. Other men also died on October 5, 2011.

Each was just a man. Just a mechanic, a teacher, a doctor. Just a dad, a husband, a friend. Each death didn’t generate worldwide buzz. Just a small circle of family and friends sharing memories outside a funeral home.

She didn’t write about them. She wrote about the great man.

And to be sure, he was great. An innovative genius with immeasurable impact.

And to be sure, he a man. Finite. And now face to face with eternity.

Affordable Luxury

My mom didn’t drink coffee at all when I was young. She didn't like it. Then she tried Starbucks.

Now, kids, there was a time when the stars still outnumbered the Starbucks. To get her beloved beans, mom would pile us all in the minivan and drive to a city 45 minutes away. Then we would arrive at Barnes and Noble, a place that still exists today (unlike its inferior cousin, Borders.) At this place you could buy books—books printed on paper. You could also buy coffee.

But that was when Starbucks was just coffee—before it exploded into a status symbol and morphed into “an affordable luxury,” according to CEO Howard Schultz.

Even in the midst of a declining economy and rising coffee prices, Starbucks is having the most profitable year ever. And the metamorphosis isn’t complete. This article reveals that the company plans to expand locations internationally (because, really, where else can they go in the US?) Another big change is the company’s plans to shift from simply a coffee shop to . . . a grocery store? Yep, the company is going to continue develop their brand to break into one of the basically recession-proof markets.

A stellar example of not only embracing potentially negative change, but capitalizing on it.

Can I get a grande bravo?

Compiling Compelling Content

Since I started this blog I’ve been unsettled.  My first idea, to approach different topics in light of generation y, soon proved to be undoable. The time and research that topic requires made me realize that I was just putting too much pressure on myself to write about something I know little about. Sure, I have familiarity with the echo generation, but it’s limited to my own experience.

One day this week, I read an article regarding Vanderbilt University that I felt compelled to write about. It became a blog post. Three other times this week I was compelled to write about things I encountered, which I also wrote. But I didn’t post those things because they didn’t go with the “angle” of my blog (which wasn’t really panning out anyway.)

Then I realized what really makes good writing: it comes from a place where the writer simply feels the need to write about it, for whatever reason. The motivation might be as big as urging readers to protect First Amendment rights or as small as reminding them to notice the flowers in the sidewalk cracks. I could choose the most interesting topic in the world, but it means nothing if it’s superficial. Readers want to read writing with integrity. Groping for a topic to fulfill a requirement will always result in substandard writing. Writing without purpose is nothing more than putting words on a page.Those words must be there for a reason.

Groupthink

In an attempt to quell alleged discrimination of non-protected classes, Vanderbilt University now may discriminate based on religion.

Political scientist and Vanderbilt law Professor Dr. Carol Swain revealed that certain student groups, including five religious groups, are now on what the university calls “provisional status” and being threatened disbandment.

The school's reasoning, according to a Fox news article published today:

"Vanderbilt says the student organizations cannot require that leaders share the group’s beliefs, goals and values.” 

Note that student organizations such as Christian Legal Society are not denying any person enrollment, only placing certain necessary restrictions on leadership. Appallingly, they expect Christian organizations to have Christian leaders.

This is in direct opposition to Vanderbilt’s policy, in which, in direct and complete application “an atheist could lead a Christian group, a man a woman’s group, a Jew a Muslim group or vice versa.”

No common interests, no collective beliefs, no shared values. What’s the point of a group again?

Second star to the right and straight on till morning.

Love without commitment. Freedom without responsibility. Innovation without action. Contradictions or the characteristics of the new status quo? In an alluring article, the New York Times dared to budge the boulder of a question that produced an avalanche of answers: what is it about twenty-somethings?

Aptly dubbed “the peter pan generation” because of their unhurried attitudes and leisurely ascension into adulthood, the offspring of the gen x baby boomers have also been called echo boomers, millennials, and generation y.

But it’s easy to bestow titles; it’s harder to decide what those titles mean. What the Times, and everyone else struggles with, is defining a postmodern (or post-postmodern, if you wish) generation by postmodern terms. What we need for this current generation is new and clear definitions. (And, hey, by the time we figure them out, we can move on to exploring the post-post-postmodern generation z.)

Why does it matter? Because people want to know about the future of their world. Because this new generation affects everyone now. From marketers to mothers, the echoes of this generation reverberate to pockets and hearts across the board.

So, what is it about twenty somethings? As a twenty year old, I’m not sure yet. But I’m in no hurry: I have a decade to figure it out. 

PILOT

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EXT. WORLD


KARISSA (20) 

Student. Barista. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Aspiration: to be anything but an echo.

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