Talk is a little cheaper

I have a friend. She and I communicate. Oh do we communicate.

I get to work. We shoot each other emails (1). Oh you know…about our nights. Who we saw. How things went. Was dinner with mom good? If a boy called. What time we went to bed. Whatever. Then a few hours later, she may check my blog and post a comment (2). Then I text her around noon (3) that I’m on my way over to eat lunch with her, so I’ll see her soon. We meet and find a place to park it outside for a half-hour lunch. Although we’ve already communicated in three different ways so far today, we’re now talking in person (4). For real talking. After lunch we don’t even say goodbye because we know that soon we’ll be in touch. And sure enough, a couple hours later, she’s sending me a piece of flair on Facebook that has me laughing out loud at my desk. So, to thank her, I quickly post a message on her Facebook wall (5). And then a bit later, I have a work question, so I hop on Facebook and see if she’s got hers open. Yup. So I open up a Facebook chat (6) and we go back and forth for a minute or so. Then the work day is done, and I realize I forgot to tell her something, so I call her (7), and we have our seventh form of communication for the day: a phone conversation.

Out of control? I think so.

But these forms of communication do not a friend make. They help, but I think the best communication is often not said or heard or read. It’s the meeting of the eyes when something funny happens—something that’s funny only to you two. And it’s the silence when you’re together…when you don’t need to say anything. The other person has had a bad day or is tired or crabby, and being there with nothing to say is just fine. Or running the last three miles of a 10-mile run together in silence, knowing you’re each pushing and encouraging each other simply by staying together. And it’s also just knowing that that person has you in his or her thoughts and is praying for you, and has your back.

I love words, so I’m not willing to say talk is cheap, but a shout out to my friends who do more than communicate with words.