Sign Me a Message

It was a toss up today.  Do I write about the No Response or do I ponder aloud my thoughts on Legalities.  I decided to go with the No Response. 

(Pause for Response.)

I will assume you responded with an emphatic, "Yes, I agree!"

8 years ago in a town called Lin Don in the great state of Ute Tah there lived an adorable little family with adorable little children.  Upstairs from this adorable family there lived a brand new little family consisting of one young man and one young woman.  The newly married couple loved to have friends over and stomp around till all hours, but that is a different tale indeed, so we will continue with this tale.

One day, the young man came downstairs to fix something outside the house of both adorable families.  My husband and I went out to greet the young man as we had hardly shared two words with them in the time we had spent in our adorable little house.  We talked to him.  We asked him questions.  We sounded inviting and chipper as only one adorable family speaking with another adorable family can.  The young man did not respond.  Maybe he didn't hear us.  Maybe he is shy.  Maybe he is a No Responder.  He didn't respond the entire time we were out there with him, standing at his side, not knowing how to proceed with our one sided conversation.  We shuffled our feet.  We tried again.  We looked around.  Could he be deaf or from a foreign country perhaps?  At last, as he stood to go, he said something.  In English.  He had heard us!  We were just the recieptients of the No Response. 

We saw him time and again after that.  We lovingly referred to him as the No Responder.  In the year and a half we lived there we never did get a direct response from the No Responder.  And in the 8 years since we have fondly remembered and contemplated the No Response.

I think the No Response is actually a Response.  I think the sender is giving you a silent message.  He could be saying, "Please, can't you see that I don't want to chat with you?" or "You are obviously not important enough for me to spend the 2 seconds it would take to hit the traditional reply button." or "I don't know what to say to you and therefore won't be saying anything lest I say something dreadfully wrong." or "I know exactly what I want to say to you and believe you me, you don't want to hear it."  The problem with the No Response is that the message you are receiving is up for interpretation.  The No Responder would do better to learn sign language and fake hearing loss. 

Well, the adorable little family has grown in the last 8 years.  The young man has probably responded a few times since then.  We still talk about the No Response.  Sometimes we laugh and sometimes we don't.  But each time we stop and wait and get the No Response we still scratch our heads and think....

it is never too late to learn sign language buddy.