Having just returned from a four city, 1600-mile road trip,
I have been reflecting on the evolution of speech. Isn’t that what most of us do on trips? The trip was fast with many stops in public
spaces, giving me abundant opportunities to eavesdrop.
One morning I was in a quiet yoga studio with lovely music,
for an eight A.M. class. While waiting
for the class to begin a student entered the room, hugged the teacher and
launched into an almost four-minute nonstop monologue. Four minutes is a scary long time to speak
without breathing or pausing.
The content of her early morning oration: “I miss class, I need to get back to
class. I have been on a month long fast (Welcome
to California) and I’m just about done
with my colonics.” I thought to
myself, “Isn’t sharing grand?” As
the road trip continued I noticed the same extended speech pattern everywhere I
listened.
Sitting in a cafe and again eavesdropping on friends’ meetings
and business gatherings, monologs were happening all around me. Three to four
minute soliloquies all done with superb breath control. When one person stopped talking the next
person jumped in without a break or a pause.
Throughout the café there was little conventional conversation; just one
upload after another, no downloading or reflection on what was said.
Two friends were preforming monologues at the table next to
me. After one friend left and I said to
the remaining BFF, “it must be so nice to
reconnect.” She responded, “Oh no, we
see each other once a week and text daily.”
Suddenly a new business opportunity materialized before me. Exercise studios; DVD’s that show and teach
lung development and breathe holding methods in order to completely dominate
conversation. My first clients could be
politicians and broadcasters.
I have noticed this
shift in speech patterns is evolving into standard operating communication
procedure. Seldom are these speeches a “need to get this off my chest,” or, “You won’t believe this,” story, but
often seem as a bombardment of useless information. My visual for this effect is words coming out
of a fire hose at full velocity spraying the listener, if they are indeed
really listening (which they usually are not).
Here is how the new communication model works: you upload
your information, I sit quietly and think about what I want to say, then upload
my information. All this is done loudly with no breathing
allowed or breaks in between. Again,
these are not good or a must tell stories, but, “traffic was terrible, he/she was so stupid,” spray till you are
done stories. These speeches are
repeated and ignored, then repeated again. No listening required just keep thinking about
what you will say next.
If you want to be able to use your speech for monologues,
not conversation, please stay fit, or you will be silenced. Keep repeating to yourself, “enough about you and now more about me.” No need to worry about downloading, that
would be too much like listening. Texting
is suddenly looking like a wonderful alternative; quite, calm and short.
No comments:
Post a Comment