Communication: Are We Perceiving The Same Thing?

Communication can be a tricky business under the best of conditions. But we all have varying perceptions, attitudes, and backgrounds. Sometimes I wonder how we manage to communicate at all.

For one thing, many people would not be aware that synesthetes may have emotional reactions to certain methods of communication. Check out this article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8248589.stm.

My form of synesthesia is labeled Ordinal Linguistic Personification. For me all the ordinal numbers have personality and gender. Briefly, 5 is an assertive girl, jealous of 6 and in love with 7. 6 is a sweet but passive girl, also in love with 7. Now 7 is a handsome male, sometimes in love with 6, but darned if he does not carelessly allow himself to get into situations with other cute little numbers! Well, I can live with it if he falls in love with 2 in an equation, but it is better if he is paired with 6. Then there is 9. He is just plain sneaky. He will use other numbers to get what he wants, and he wants to steal 6 away from 7. 6 + 3 = NOOOOOOOO!

Now how was I supposed to do math properly if I had an emotional reason to want the equation to cause 7 to pair with 6 and not 5? I would start thinking of ways to fix the problem so 6 can return to 7 like she should. The problem was, there was not enough class time to solve the relationship problems as well as the mathematical problems.

Many people with this phenomenon are quite good at math. Not me. There was entirely too much story telling involved. It was hard to keep my mind on task if I was overly concerned with these flighty little numbers that refused to settle down to monogamy. I wanted the good numbers to be happy and win, and the bad numbers to lose. But the little critters didn't know what was good for them.

My poor teachers (and my Mother!) never knew what they were up against.

Now it is just an amusing curiosity. But it is a good thing I never told my teachers in the 1960's! I was prone to imagination anyway and I thought this was just more of it.

I have mostly ignored these little numeric personalities since I left grade school. I can hardly be worrying about whether 6 and 7 are going to solve their relationship problems by the other side of the equal sign when I am trying to figure which can of tuna is the cheapest.

But what if I get Alzheimer's and end up in room 69? Will I react? 67 is a good match, but not 69. Bad 9! Will I yell at 9? Will I beat him? Oh, yes, I think I can drive my keepers crazy.  Communication will have to be very creative to get to the bottom of this problem.