Disrupting the Chain
You know what makes me seethingly, nuttier-than-nuts, over the top annoyed? When people break the communication chain leaving you hanging in a communication lurch, hands tied, and wondering.
I’ve noticed the communication chain to be very important to me, I think as a single person, moreso than 1) married people, 2) men, 3) introverts, 4)…okay, well, considering the number of people included in those groups, maybe I’m just crazy about the rules of communication. But I find them fairly simple so I’m not sure why everyone just can’t get on board. They are as follows:
1. When you initiate the communication, you (the initiator) cannot (cannot) for fear of being called a stalker contact the same person until they contact you back.
2. When you are the receiver of said communication*, you return it.
2b. When returning, it is proper to return via the mode the initial communique was delivered. (Thus, it is completely outside of the rules to return a phone call with an e-mail, etc.)
*This of course assumes the person contacting you is a friend or bound to you by a communication-based relationship (boss, brother, the dog groomer, etc.)
Those are the rules. That’s all of them. No overly-wrought communications lingo, addenda, or small print. Of course, I realize that there are circumstantial situations that may preclude the rules and that’s fine; these are general and finite.
Unfortunately, I’m now left in the void of the disrupted chain of communication. I blame myself. I sent a vague, short e-mail to a friend fully expecting a response. In all reality, it probably looked fairly innocuous and not meant for any kind of repechage (it’s a word…ask Susan, she knows)…but now my hands are tied…by my own damn rules of communication. Why? No return. Rule 2 was utterly tread all over.
Technically, I suppose since rule 2 was broken, all bets are off and I–as the victim, truly–could cite that in my trial for stalking a friend. But we all know, per the labeling theory, what the title “stalker” can bring you in life…essentially, not good things. No, I’ll just have to wait. But that then brings up the weirdness that will come when I encounter said friend face-to-face; of course, I’ll want to ask why they never e-mailed me back…but I won’t…because in another set of communication rules, the non-returnal of calls, emails, disruptions of the chain of any species, cannot be inquired about directly for sure look of desperation.
The chain has been broken. It wasn’t even a chain, really. Just a simple two sentences with a question to finish it off. Gone forever. It’s the same dismay I feel when I know the opportunity to change potential energy into kinetic energy has passed. It’s a sad day for physics just like it’s a sad day for this lost communication.
Farewell, e-mail. Farewell.