A Mute Story

The other day I was watching the tail-end of a news cast and when it was over I decided to flip the channels to see if anything interesting was on. I very much despise television as a whole, but I do enjoy many shows on the travel channel such as No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain or Samantha Brown. Neither of those shows were on unfortunately, so I stopped on a decent movie I had already seen and pressed the mute button because I needed to make a phone call. After the call I had forgotten I had the t.v. on and decided to check my email. I stuck on my headphones, selected shuffle on my music player, and carried on my daily Internet habits.

After a quick stop by Lifehacker, I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye beyond my computer screen and realized the what is was. I sat there and watched the remainder of the movie without sound. In combination with the lyrics and gentle tones of the music that was playing, I created my own set of stories by observing the ever changing facial expressions the characters in the movie displayed. As the songs changed, the stories changed. They say most of our communication is non-verbal, but I would definitely say that words are required to gain the most understanding of what is being said. Otherwise, we are left with a dried-out piece of clay left unsculpted.

This can make for some interesting inventions, but you have to be careful in social environments, especially when someone is talking to you. I sometimes find myself concentrating too much on the expressions and loose track of what is being said. Mastering both visual and verbal forms of expression will help in the overall understanding from one person to another.