"Hollow words will burn...

...and hollow men will burn" is the clarion call drilled through your skull in Shai Hulud's "Set Your Body Ablaze". I've been listening to Shai Hulud a lot over the past week and I can't get over how amazing their lyrics are. As much as I like to listen to Shai Hulud, there is one thing that I tend to listen to more than anything else. It's not a band. It's not a song. It's not a TV program (down with the beast!!). The thing that I listen to more than anything else is, you guessed it, my own voice. I hear it all the time. For those of you out there who may be new to my life, I essentially get paid to be the voicebox of a small private college. I talk for an hour and a half straight about the ins and outs of campus on a weekly basis. I talk for 20 minutes just about sports, music, and theatre programs every day. I talk about whatever it is you want to know regarding my school in as long, or as short, of a timespan as you wish. I get paid to talk and subsequently hear my own voice a whole lot.

Whereas talking allllllll the time has helped me in terms of how to relate to people in public speaking engagements, it's had a few detrimental effects on my personality. One of the most insidious baobabs which has taken over my personality is that of constantly relying on hollow words to carry my conversation. During any given day at work, I'm expected to talk and wax-eloquent about aspects of my college which, frankly, I could care less about or don't know about. In these instances I've seamlessly preprogrammed into my oration a whole lot of fluff statements that really convey no important information, but somehow manage to appease the inquirer.

"Like what Andrew? Everything you've ever told me has been sage-like in character!!" you remark! Ohhhhh stop it you're too kind, too kind. Let me give you some excellent examples.

Student: Tell me about your communicationssss program (emphasis on the 'S'. Our Communication program is called...a communication program, no 'S')
Andrew: Our communication program offers a very indepth, well rounded curriculum that lends itself well to going in a lot of directions within the communication field!
(duh...)

Andrew (delivering a public address): I think our college is unique because we really encourage you to grow in your faith. We want to make sure that you're given opportunity to grow in and outside of class. We have an authentically Christian environment.
(hmmm...how many ways can you say "Christian College" back to back? This time, it was 3).

Andrew (to prospective student's family who compliments him): Oh...well you know, I do what I can.
(seriously I say this all the time. of course I do, that should go without sayingWhat does that mean? Anything?)

I could go on and on people, but you get the idea. I realized today that the fluff and hollow words that I drop at work have taken root and are taking over my life. This was the conversation I had with a friend at lunch today:

Steve: Hey man what's up?
Me: Not much, just out for lunch. What about you?
Steve: Yeah me too, going to get some pizza at the buffet.
Me: Yeah man, you come out to Pizza Hut and get some pizza on the buffet! It's a good deal.
Steve: Yeah tell me about it
Me: Alright man I'll let you get to your lunch.

MEANINGLESS!! Nothing said on my end of the conversation was substantial talk, even for a 5 year old. A five year old would at least ask what kind of pizza Steve was getting, if he could have some of Steve's Moutain Dew, or how he got to be so tall. Ok those are dumb questions, but as you can see they would certainly carry the conversation a litle further than I did in my now 24 years (to the date) of existence. It was at this point that I realized that I've got to do something about my hollow words! And if I'm going to do something, then that means YOU should all do something about it too!

Over the next few blogs I want to talk about communication. Why do we do it? Why don't we do it enough? Why do we take it for granted? How is it that we can have entire conversations with people composed of purely hollow statements and topics?? I know that these questions are the stuff that communicationsssss classes and text books are based around, but I'm just presumptuous enough to think I can do a general overview in a few blogs. Will it work? Maybe if I can cut the fluff out of my blogs you'll find out. In the meantime, leave some meaningful comments for us...we love to hear your feedback!