Suddenly there was silence. My brother and I were in another room during our parent’s Christmas party and the only sound was fast approaching footsteps. The door flew open and my mom’s expression indicated she was not happy. We were 20 and 21, home forwinter break and got a look from my mom that indicated we were in trouble. We held our breath waiting to hear what offense, we’d done. But, my mom couldn’t seem to speak. Mrs Bryant, looking upset, pushed my mom out-of-the-way and asked, “Why did you two let your mama buy that record? That language was awful. I am so shocked” Looking at my mother, my brother responded, “you said you wanted a comedy party album for tonight.” I add, “you asked us if that Richard Pryor album was funny and we said yes.” We never heard either of our parents use anything near profane language. We weren’t allowed to say darn or shot or gee. The Richard Pryor album contained “adult language.” Maybe, I thought, “adult language” meant language only adults could use, and once you became a certain age, your vocabulary could expand to include a sub genre of the profane?
Tony Robbins said, ‘the quality of your life is directly proportional to the quality of your communications.” In that moment with my mom, the quality of my life and my communication was proportional. Poor communication resulted in a room full of upset people.Often there are questions we don’t think we need to ask or conversations we don’t think we need to have. But how do we come to those conclusions? This week, think about your all your communications, what you hear, what you understand and what you express. How well can you do these things? Consider, is the quality of your life proportional to the quality of your communications? Cheers to a wonderful life.
P.S. The happiest of birthdays to my brother; in memory of the Ps – happy anniversary.
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 