Communication is having others involved.

Communication is more than talking to others.  It is having them involved in a communication system that you're part of.

In good communication, others become your extended mind, and you improvise your thoughts in a way you alone cannot do.  The more others are involved, the more you think, and the better communication becomes.

This is like Budo performance: The less you do alone, the better; The more you have others involved, the better.

In this sense, my JALT talk at Matsuyama was a success.  The audience seemed to be entertained by my talk, and I was thoroughly entertained by the responses from the audience.

As far as I can see, we were all involved in a communication system that is larger than the sum of our individual consciousnesses. We enjoyed the experience of letting ourselves be led by the communication system, which seemed to have its own life.

It seemed to me that we all felt 'something' is going on among us (which I'm calling a 'communication system'), and that each of us was driven to produce our own response by that something.  We felt something larger than us, and that gave us a special pleasure of communion and communication.

I'd like to take some time from now to explore the possibilities which that experience has offered.  I want to try to give firmer forms to the thoughts that I had in the thought improvisation.  I'd like to express them in my writing, which is another communication style I do with words I write down.

Right now, I'd like to thank everyone that made my JALT talk possible and successful.   Thank you, John, in particular.