Do We Understand Each Other?

Communication is vital in every relationship – whether it be husband and wife, pastor and congregation, parent and child, and, yes, even among those we spend possibly the largest chunk of our days with -- co-workers.

I managed to survive a brief but memorable career in the high-stress behind-the-scenes arena of the trucking industry known as dispatch. Basically, the job of a dispatcher is to appease the tempers of salesmen, customers, management and, of course, truck drivers. Days were spent in a vast room filled with partitionless cubicles, breathing the ever-present aroma of coffee mingled with diesel fumes that crept in from the adjacent shop.

When the trucker-turned-dispatcher seated next to me slammed down his receiver and muttered an expletive, I momentarily ignored the four flashing lights vying for my attention from my own phone and peered around my computer monitor.

“What’s wrong?” I dared to ask.

“I gotta make a delivery appointment in Laredo, Texas, and this guy don’t speak English!”

Ignoring his own lack of skill with the language, I thought, “Ah, Spanish.” All those years spent sweltering in Yuma, Arizona, would at last come in handy. And, while I'd always taken an interpreter on my frequent trips to Mexico, I had mastered all the necessary phrases: “How much?”; “No, thank you”; and “Where’s the bathroom, please?” Read More . . .