Communicate & Cooperate

Here are two big words. They’re long words, but their meanings are pretty simple. Here’s the first one: communicate. All animals communicate. I feed birds that drop into my garden each morning. One arrives, and then bird calls its mates. Soon, there is a flock of them having breakfast. They come from all over the neighbourhood. When the food is gone, they look at me as if to say, ‘Is there any more?’

We humans communicate in lots of ways. And we do it way better than my backyard birds. Sometimes, we don’t even have to speak. A hand signal, a body posture, or an expression can get our message across.

Like my birds, our eyes can communicate vast amounts of information. Look into a mirror and smile. Now, cover your smiling mouth with your hand. Can you still tell you’re smiling? Of course, you can. Your eyes communicate a smile as much as your mouth.

The second of my words for today is cooperate. Again, its meaning is straightforward. Animals cooperate. We cooperate. Sometimes, the only way to get things done is to cooperate.

My birds cooperate by communicating. Huh? They call their mates to let them know where to find the food. Once they arrive, they cooperate by sharing. Some feed while others hang back, waiting their turn.

Where did we learn to communicate and cooperate? Your teacher might go on about them. Maybe your parents talk about them or demonstrate them. If you play a team sport, you know all about cooperation. Like all great learning, you didn’t realise you were learning something.

Are the skills of communicating and cooperating ever complete? Well, no.

Are they important? You bet!