Darmok and Jalad

…storytelling is just part of being a human being. It’s what we do, from the very beginning, when we were writing shit on caves and whatnot. That’s how we communicate.
~ Spike Lee

Our neighbors in the muy dilapidated house next door sold their pile of kindling and moved. Jen, Oni, Ten and I figured the new owners would tear it all down and put up some gleaming new mess. Yes and no. The house was bought by developers who are gutting the joint, rehabbing, adding a third floor and redoing the windows and siding.

In any case, yesterday Jen was in the yard, weeding, when she looked up and saw a worker up where the roof used to be. Their eyes met, she shouted a hello and the two started chitchatting. (like with The Amazing Bob EVERYONE talks with Jen – she’s a social magnet, I tell ya!)

It quickly became clear that he didn’t speak much English – Spanish was his native tongue. She dusted off her high school Spanish, threw in some gestures and ASL and the two of them managed to cobble together a convo.

How cool is that?

It occurs to me now that this kluged chat style is my life since deafness invaded. I’m only fluent in written English but can, more or less, get by in ASL and I know a few words in Spanish and German. About all I could’ve managed with Roof Level Construction Guy was hola and a sociable ¿qué tal?

As Jen Luc Picard said, in that great Next Generation ep Darmok,

“In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe that these are qualities that we have in sufficient measure.”

Jen and Roof Dude def had it.

The words we use, the way we string them together along with facial expressions and other body language tell the story of our intentions and who we are.

This isn’t about having a giant vocabulary or whether, like me, you use “fuck” as a verbal comma. It’s all about communication.

Ya know…Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra*, Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel** and shit.

I think all the advanced tech in my tiny phone encourages my innate intellectual laziness.

Yesterday, I was at my six month cornea check up. The CART system wasn’t up and running yet so I broke out my own 21st century Universal Translator, Texter on my iPhone. Without it, I would’ve needed to lean heavily on lipreading. Of course, now, in this plague age of masks, lipreading’s not possible. I find myself closely watching people’s eyes. I know that won’t tell me what they’re saying BUT I can at least get tone, mood and, possibly, intent.

That’s something, right?

* Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra = working together
** Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel = two strangers come and make a connection but also first contact (source)