Yesterday I posted my reaction to the various “comments” that a local art competition is receiving in our community. These comments are appearing in several places: the art competition’s website, the online version of the local newspaper and various other local blogs. Reading these comments caused me to reflect on the nature of discourse on…
Communication
Are You a Good Host?
Do you have a friend who’s an excellent party-giver? What is it about him or her that makes it so? Is it the fantastic food? The diverse guest list? An excellent home that provides the perfect backdrop for gatherings? It could be any of these things, but I’d bet the one thing that’s for sure…
The Language of Frailty
Words fascinate me. Walking into a book store jazzes me the way some people invest emotionally in sports or music. From my first published work at age 13 (op-ed piece in our local newspaper) to being a Spanish major in college, to conducting Communications Skills workshops for employees, language has always been more than just…
Bully on the Track Field
So I’m reading Bret Simmons’ post When the Bully Boss is Female . . . There’s a slight whooshing sound in my brain and all of a sudden time sort of shifts. It’s the 1970’s and I’m in 8th grade. A new family has moved from Chicago to our tiny farming community in Michigan. They…
Have We Met?
Here’s a trend I’ve noticed when getting introduced to people via technology requiring the written word—email, Linked In, Twitter. When I first introduce myself, people will often reply something to the effect of “nice to ‘meet’ you.” The quotation marks around the word meet are significant. The meaning I derive from those quotations marks are…