A local biz and entertainment weekly ran an essay last week by Mr. Patrick Walsh in the Interchange: Insights & Arguments – Essays & Soliloquies section.

While we all certainly appreciate that Walsh considers himself a poet – it’s in the byline at the end – he totally misses the point of day to day communication.

1) The effectiveness of a communication is determined by the receiver, not the sender. Period.

2) Language is a tool. To fault the tool because a sender abuses it is shooting the messenger. Pun and cliche intended.

3) While it is the best we’ve got, language is an imperfect tool. For example, someone says, “blue” and that might mean royal to some and navy to others. Cliches are nothing more than the handful of phrases that are part of the collective conscious. We share them, what’s wrong with that?As the cliche goes, why reinvent the wheel?

4) When trying to communicate, big words and obscure fancy phrases typically do nothing more than self-declare the sender as a “blow hard”. Is there anything more brilliant in its simplicity than MLK’s “I had a dream” speech?

It’s  agreed, creativity is a great thing. We should all try to be more creative, as well as try to communicate more effectively. But as dad likes to say, “There’s a time and a place for everything.” If every moment demanded poetry, it wouldn’t be poetry anymore. It would be business as usual. And isn’t that a cliche as well?