To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.
Interpretation
Effective communication requires adapting to the audience's needs and abilities.
This quote by Flannery O'Connor emphasizes the importance of tailoring our communication methods to suit the audience. Just as we would shout for those who can't hear and draw large figures for those who struggle to see, we must be attentive to how our message is received and adjust our approach accordingly to ensure understanding.
In practice
In a presentation, I often remember the quote by O'Connor to adapt my visuals for those who might have trouble seeing the slides.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people donβt realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
I speak and speak, [...] but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. [...] It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.
You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation.
There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication.... Try the experiment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another, especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your experience changing.
There is only one excuse for a speaker's asking the attention of his audience: he must have either truth or entertainment for them.
He says a million things without saying a word. I have never heard a more eloquent silence.
You can send a message around the world in one-fifth of a second, yet it may take years for it to get from the outside of a man's head to the inside.
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