What We Have Is A Failure To Communicate

We have cable TV. Without it, we'd get 3 television channels. With cable we get a lot more channels, and a few added services. Our cable company has had to send service reps to our house several times over the past few weeks because when we try to access a certain feature of our sevice, instead of a 'new world of home entertainment with more choices', we get... a 'communication error' message. Exhaustive attempts to determine the cause of the problem have proven to be ineffective thus far, and we're told that our cable box is experiencing a failure to communicate with the broadcast source.

The problem is consistent, but not constant. So, they tell us that we have to call them when the problem actually occurs in order to try to diagnose it. We have to communicate that we have a lack of communication. Think about it, though, at least we know the nature of the problem, because the little box tells us that it has a communication error. We don't blame the box, but we empathize with its cry for help, for understanding, and we call the cable guy.

Lack of communication is one thing, and mis-communication is another. One letter can change a word, and word order can change the intended meaning of a sentence. Such as in these examples of announcements from actual church bulletins (not ours). All are direct quotes:

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Potluck supper: Prayer and medication to follow.

Don't let worry kill you - let the church help.

The choir director invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.

Ushers will eat latecomers.

Punctuation can also change the meaning of text. Did you realize that ancient texts (like the Bible) didn't incorporate any punctuation? Kind of explains scriptural exegesis challenges.

For example, Isaiah 40:3 says:

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “ Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God." (NKJ translation)

and...

"A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." (NIV translation)
Kind of makes a difference.

And punctuation has actually become its own little language, called emoticons. Variations on smiley faces... :-) (happy), :-( (sad), :-[ (pouting); :~0 (surprise), :~r (nyeh, nyeh)

Punctuation matters to the panda... A panda walks into a café, orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires 2 shots into the air. As he exits, he tosses a badly punctuated wildlife manual over his shoulder to the confused waiter. "I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up!" The waiter turns to the relevant entry and reads the definition: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

OK, I'm done now. Going to go check on the cable TV. ;-}