Smoke signals...........................

      There are a dozen things that must go right in order for communication to occur, and not all of them are under the speaker's control.  Because language is a communal act, as much depends on those who listen as on those who speak.  Every word is a smoke signal sent up with great effort.  The fire must be very hot.  The wood must be very green.  The wet blanket must be lowered and lifted at just the right moments.  But none of those is any guarantee.  If no one is watching the sky, you might as well be roasting marshmallows.  In order for communication to occur, you need someone who is watching who knows the language.
     Even a knowledgeable partner is no guarantee that the message sent will be the message received.  Language is porous, not solid.  Every word carries its own history inside of it.  A word such as charity does not mean the same thing now as it did a hundred years ago.  Depending on a listener's own history with the word, the hearing of it may evoke a glow of contentment or a flush of shame.  Send up a smoke signal that says "Practice Charity" and one person who sees it will go kiss her rebellious teenager while someone else will start rummaging through his closet for old clothes to give away.  A third, who is perhaps most typical of our age, will have not context for responding to the word at all.

-Barbara Brown Taylor,  When God is Silent