When playing catch, one person throws and one person catches whatever is being tossed back and forth. In conversation, words are the item being tossed back and forth, and the people who speak them are the parties involved in the game of catch. There are some people who are pelters, and only throw words without giving time for anyone else to catch and throw words back.
There are also conversational hoarders who only catch and never throw anything back. Both actions communicate their own message. Sometimes we each fit both of those descriptions in our attempt to share and express thoughts and intentions.
Communication is a game of catch.
Rules of the Game
We all have our own rules for this game, and we only ever understand our own version of reality. It doesn’t matter how hard we try to get others to change, enhance or expand their rules for a catch.
We never get outside of our translation of past experiences.
We naturally think our opinions are the right ones for ourselves and those we play catch with.
Communication is Never Exact
In almost every communication, we can be sure that what we say is rarely (if ever) what is received, and what we understand is almost never exactly what was intended to be communicated.
Most communication is non-verbal, and in today’s “digital world,” most of those points of non-verbal communication become assumed.
Silence can communicate more than words. Both good and bad assumptions from each party’s history of experience are communicated through silence. What other people see of you is filtered through their past experiences.
Our present communication is informing their future expectations, and vice versa.