They say we gather 93% of anything communicated to us through facial expressions.

The other 7% is gathered from what we hear them saying with their voice.

I admit, I was flabbergasted when I heard this.

Yes, I heard it; didn’t have the chance to see it.

I guess that is how a person would say it; the part about facial expressions, that is.

Reminds me of an old gentleman I really enjoyed visiting with.  He had a wealth of knowledge and even more of experience, but he was almost deaf. 

He would often say, “Turn the lights on so I can hear you.”

He probably had the jump on all of us when it came to communication.

Even though, looking on, we who heard probably called him somewhat handicapped.

It makes me wonder how it’s going to turn out for the future generations and who really is the handicapped one. 

Because I would hazard a guess that most of our communication today has a percentage just like we started out with.

Except it’s reversed.  We try to understand 93% of what is being told to us without seeing it.

And the remaining 7% we see, because we are actually in person, not hidden behind some digital device that we are relying on to do our communication for us.

Maybe this explains a little turn of events that occurred between my friend Jesse and me.

Now admittedly, I have several things against me when it comes to communication.

I don’t hear as well I used to. 

Well, wait.

I hear just fine.  It’s just that people tend to mumble so much more than they used to. 

I hear their mumbling just fine.

Another thing I have against me is that I seem to be scatterbrained at times.  For sure when there is a lot going on.

My wife will attest to this quite readily, but she’s too kind so you probably won’t hear her actually say it. 

(Or see it said.)

And the last thing that I can think of, is that I used to not be able to see all the letters in a text message and I had to always either be taking screenshots and blowing them up, or simply guessing. 

All of which is what I think happened the afternoon Jesse text me.

As far as afternoons go, it was a bit of a humdinger.

Some went so far as to call it the blizzard of the century.

I never heard if those saying that were older than me or younger. 

They might be right though, it was a nasty one, and life became all the more disrupted when the juice went off right before the storm hit.

So, in the midst of this seething storm and power outage, Jesse messaged me and, and as I read it at the time and guessed at what letters I couldn’t see, I was given to understand that he wanted one of those nice Generac generators that we sell installed on his property. 

I had a tiny reservation, because I knew he had been throwing a lot of money at getting started at a new place out in the country, (Sorry Jesse, I should err on the positive side not the negative,) so I messaged him back with ‘Serious’?

And he said, “Yep.” 

That much I got.

So, I ordered a genset. 

And when it arrived, I sent Josh and Bryce out to set it up for him.

It was a bit more of a complicated install, owing to the fact that we needed to turn on both his shop and house in case of a power outage, so the guys didn’t quite get it done on that first day. 

I planned to send them out the next day to finish.

But that evening, I got a voice message from Jesse, asking me to give him a call, and it seemed I could almost sense a bit of strain in his voice.

When I called him, the strain I suspected I heard seemed a bit more evident as he said, “I don’t know what happened, but it looks like we had a colossal misunderstanding.”

I liked his word colossal right off.

Turns out, he had correctly messaged me of his intentions, when I looked back at our messages, and took my time reading it, like I hadn’t during the storm.

All he wanted was a single switch that he could roll his portable generator out to and hook up during a power outage.

Obviously, the fault was all mine, and I have to hand it to Jesse, he had in him that courteous southern deference that I see so clearly in anyone who hails from the south. 

I sent the boys out the next day to retrieve that errant generator and install a switch instead. 

It’s like I tell the boys when things like this happen, ‘It’s all about making memories.’

And, this memory is a good one.

Because, you know what?

My wife is really pleased with the new generator she has to power her house now. 

And, if I dare say so, she was every bit the pleasant customer that Jesse is.

But of course, because she is from the south, afterall.

Written in Red Beard and KC window tinting