‽istis reclaims communication (weekending December 19th 2020)
This week ‽istis reclaims and wonders at and
about communication
‽ the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child article 12: and those children and young people who are not
heard or who cannot speak of their experiences; who over the centuries have not
had the words, or the voice, or the chance to tell[i]
‽ the ‘round robins’ that
are winging their winter flight path round the globe, bringing news of the
achievements of off-spring (grades, jobs, pursuits of an extraordinary nature)
- or of the year in ailments and treatments… and somehow including new
strains of best wishes for a happier new one after ‘what a year!’[ii]
‽ the power of a phrase
(likely unscripted, spontaneous, and perhaps so prescient of a majority): “Oh,
shut up, man!”[iii]
‽ the open Socratic
questions[iv] that can unlock thinking,
exploration, self-discovery, expression in one’s own terms
‽ the message of Christmas… though
Pistis is puzzled by talk of trying to protect a meaningful Christmas (which
looks in jeopardy with a message change perhaps likely) - are some expecting a display of divine
intervention or something? #DivineIntervention #Christmasisnottheonlyfestival
#ComeonGodshowyourhand #Isamiracletoomuchtoaskfor
‽ the words and pictures
conveying data about new strains, about R rates that may change a political
mind, that may change dramatically the rules, that may change the plans for
families, that may shut down a country, that may badly ice the cake for skin-of-the-teeth-hanging
businesses, that may leave many isolated and in despair
‽ the ‘downstairs’ and 'outside' stories
balancing the ‘upstairs’ stories; the herstories[v] and theirstories and
ourstories balancing the history and histories.
And this week ‽istis overheard perhaps,
possibly, maybe the communication question of the week from a security man (in
the waiting area of a Covid-19 vaccination area of a hospital) responding to a
colleague who had declined to give an opinion (“oh, I couldn’t say…”) with: “but
if you could say… what would you say?”… genius and effective…
© Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this
week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders
[i]
For an example of ‘the untold story of child abuse’ see work by Lloyd deMause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_deMause
[ii]
For a window into this world see, for example: Simon Hoggart: ‘The Round Robin
Letters: The Ultimate Collection of Christmas Letters’ (2014)
[iii] Biden
to Trump, 2020 American Presidential Election debates
[iv]
For example, see: http://changingminds.org/techniques/questioning/socratic_questions.htm
[v]
For example: Kay Jones: the herstorian.co.uk; Alice Wroe: About — Herstory (herstoryuk.org); The Herstorians
