Communication Breakdown

I like “Star Trek.” I don’t think I qualify as a “Trekkie” or a “Trekker.” The fact that I’m not sure what they are called these days is probably sufficient proof. But, I digress. I just watched an episode called “Darmok,” probably for the tenth time. The gist of the story: Captain Picard is thrown into a life-and-death situation with the captain of a starship of an alien race, the Tamarians. The handy-dandy universal translator can’t decipher their unusual language, because Dathon, the other captain - and all Tamarians -  speak only in metaphors. There is a critical breakdown in communication. Of course, this may raise the question of whether or not a race can communicate entirely in metaphors. But, for our purposes, let’s just look at the issue of a verbal communication failure.

Many of us have traveled to other countries. Some anticipate the language barrier by studying the foreign tongue. Some countries are much more accommodating to the language limitations of foreigners. But many of us have had the experience of not being able to communicate our most basic needs to another human being, usually after a long day of travel: Where is the bathroom? Where can I find a place to stay? I need a hospital!

What do we do in these situations? Most of us resort to sign language. But there can even be cultural differences there: nodding means “no” in Turkey, for example. Nonetheless, we seem to manage to get our message across. Most languages have nouns and verbs, and we point and gesture until we communicate some rudimentary message. But, it usually takes considerable time.

All of this made me think of the Tower of Babel, the fascinating story in the book of Genesis (Genesis 11:1-9). God saw how efficiently men could do evil when they all spoke the same language. So He decided to “confuse their language so they do not understand each other.” It worked. They stopped building a tower to the heavens and were scattered throughout the world.  At Pentecost (Acts 2), the reverse occurred: everyone was able to understand the good news that the apostles had to share – each in his own language - and there was unity. Communication is powerful. Language can divide or unify.