I’m watching South Park today.
Well, in the background. Do not judge me, okay? It occurs to me, as I’m desperately attempting to understand SEO and keyword research, that 90% of the show is, “Adults explain things very poorly to kids. Kids use this misinformation to get into a lot of trouble. Kyle learns something from it, and tries his best to communicate this to the masses, but nobody really listens.” Rinse and repeat.
It isn’t as if this is new to me. I cannot count the number of plots I’ve stumbled on that are literally, “Two or more people can’t talk and shit happens. Then they talk and the shit mostly stops. The End.” Home Alone (use a goddamn phone, Kevin! Or knock on the neighbor’s door!). Home Alone 2. Home Alone (is there a third one? Did the parents finally succeed in losing their kid?). Shrek. Shrek 2. Shrek…I’m just gonna stop there. 9/10 of romantic comedies. At least with Romeo and Juliet they had legitimate family trauma to navigate, and also they were teenagers.
Why does this keep happening?
Oh, right. We’re taught terrible communication skills.
I understand. Truly. I sometimes have difficulty trying to explain myself. But the point is we all need to be trying. Where we’re at just isn’t good enough.
And even when I’m not great at it, I at least talk to the person I’m in a relationship with (be it romantic or platonic) instead of the popular technique of ghosting.
I don’t know a cure-all solution, but I do know that if we can’t learn to communicate, we’re going to just keep getting in a lot of trouble.