First of all…bear with me while I preface this conversation…I promise, it WILL make sense when I’m done.
My son and I were chatting yesterday about random stuff. He was telling me about some things that had gone on at this job over the weekend. He handles security for some of the local raves.
Side Note: I didn’t even know that people still held raves. I’d heard about them in my younger years but that wasn’t really my thing then and it certainly isn’t now. But if you have kids between the ages of 14 and 25…you may wanna start finding out about them and more importantly, educate your kids about them, what goes on, and how to protect themselves from some of the dangers if they choose to sneak out and attend anyway…ok, so I’m that’s a whole other topic for another day!
Back on topic. My son’s nearly 22 years old and I’ve managed to keep him away from the drug scene…thankfully. However, as a security guard at raves, he’s now being exposed to a new and unfamiliar territory. He can tell me what the kids are doing nowadays…most of which includes Crystal Meth, along with the “never say die” world of pot-smoking, but he occasionally has questions. That’s what started me on today’s topic.
He had confiscated a small pipe from one of the rave attendees. Before throwing it away, he asked if I knew what it was used for. I told him it appeared to be a “one-hit”. Understand, I’m not an expert in the world of joints and marijuana, but I know some of the very basics from some of the guys I hung out with in high school. He asked which drug it would be used for. One sniff of the end and the answer was obvious…pot.
He had considered keeping it…cause it was unique…but then realized that it was drug paraphernalia, and that he’s applying to be a Sheriff or Police Officer…neither of which will not look nicely upon his drug paraphernalia collection. I laughed and told him yes, it was best he throw it away. I told him that I DO still have some roach clips in my possession (I bought them at the State Fair as a teen. There were feathers attached to them and they looked really “cool” on my cowboy hat) 
That’s when the conversation began that led me here. He asked what a roach clip was. I explained that it was used to hold joints when they were lit so that you wouldn’t burn your fingers. He started laughing and said, “well that explains the “roach” comment I keep hearing xxx talk about at the raves.” He explained that the first time one of his co-workers had mentioned there being “roaches” on the ground at a rave, he thought that they might be referring to the nasty, winged kind that belong to the insect world. He had been meaning to ask me about it for some time but kept forgetting.
Once we finished laughing, he brought up the time that he had misunderstood something else. When he was about 15 or so, he decided to make cookies for me while I was at work (how cool is that!?). Anyway, when I got home, there was a pile of cookie on a piece of foil in the kitchen (and no, I didn’t forget the ’s’ on cookie…it was one pile). I laughed and asked what had happened. He proceeded to explain that he had read the recipe, followed the directions, and couldn’t for the life of him understand what had gone wrong. He said when they weren’t coming out right, he went back and re-read the recipe.
He then explained that the only thing he could think of was that when the recipe called for “1 tsp soda”, he had been unsure of which type of “soda” to use. Since we had both Sprite AND Coke in the house, he had decided on the Coke since it was dark and he was making chocolate cookies.
Wait for it…it WILL register…. And don’t worry…I explained it to him…and his cookies turn out just fine nowadays!
So why did I tell you all this? No, it wasn’t to make my son look like he doesn’t know anything (in fact, the boy’s got a much higher I.Q. than I do), and it wasn’t to provide a drug education. It got me thinking that even though we think we’re being clear, that’s not always the case.
It’s important to remember that we all have different backgrounds. We’ve experienced different things, known different people, spent time in different places. And just because I know something that seems simple to me, I can’t make the assumption that everyone around me knows the same thing.
Whether I’m talking with someone or blogging or writing an article or even recording a video…if I don’t keep that very simple fact in mind, I may lose customers that could be potentially worth thousands of dollars. Or worse, I could lose a potential JV partner that could cost me millions.
So, whether it’s basic cooking, drug enforcement, or social bookmarking, we have to remember that, whether we’re communicating verbally or in writing, the people we’re communicating TO have their own set of filters and their own set of life experiences that they’re using to understand what it is we’re saying to them.
Until next time…
