in that there is nothing left to take."

Smilies everywhere; grins and winks and blushes, laughs and hmmmms and shushes, and I wonder: do those little emoticons really convey our emotions?

I send a smile, a laugh, along with a comment, implying I'm smiling as I post, but am I smiling or is the emoticon sending what I wish I were doing? Is the emoticon making me smile? Am I hoping the target gets the smile, understands whatever little innuendo I'm trying to convey? Or am I just trying to fit in, blend into the blogging community by making little inane comments, copies of comments I have seen elsewhere, four to nine words, followed by the ever present smiley face?

"You were talk, talk, talk, talking in circles that day. When you get to the point, make sure that I'm still awake, okay?"

This medium is fraught with problems, obstacles to genuine communication. Satire is lost, innuendo is hit and miss. Humor, so dependent on facial expression and body position and hand movement, is misconstrued as attack. Attach a smiley and all will be forgiven, or defused, or at least understood, we hope.

"I went crazy again, today, looking for a strand to climb, looking for a little hope."

Impersonal personal communication is rampant. People learn about us through our writing, our snippets of thought posted for everyone to see, usually with no weighing of implication, of consequence. What sounds like a snappy retort in our head sounds like a vicious attack when read by others.

Too many times no thought is put into our attempts at communication. We don't step back, think about what we are going to say, think about the audience, think about diplomacy.

What if the target of our humor, or scorn, or assistance, doesn't get it? What if a girl doesn't need or want our assistance? What if other's differ in their opinion of our favorite? What if...we spew venom, targeting individually, wounding en masse.

"Hunger hurts, but starving works, when it costs too much to love."