Miscommunication

So many problems in the world come from a failure to communicate. Bitter rivalries between neighbors, the quarrels of young lovers. The inability to communicate, or worse, the refusal to communicate has led to the downfall of many a relationship, romantic, professional, international. Such was the case with the two nations of the Grassi and Riktu.

The Grassi believe firmly in eating every bite offered, to show one loves the cook’s food so much that one would dare not let any go to waste. The Riktu, on the other hand, believe one should only ever eat half a dish, to show that the host was more than generous by offering far more than one could comfortably eat.

Diplomats met and were insulted by the other’s table manners, the Riktu thinking the Grassi greedy and the Grassi feeling the Riktu snubbed their cuisine, a national treasure. Naturally, neither side bothered to communicate their resentments. They just spread word about how awful the neighbors were among their own people. From there, all diplomatic meetings started on the wrong foot, the biases having long since turned to prejudices, and things only rapidly devolved from there.

The Riktu crossed borders first, so technically they were the invading aggressors in the war that followed, but saying so gives the false impression that both sides weren’t equally at fault for the violence to come. Ultimately, the Grassi won the war, virtually wiping out any semblance of Riktu sovereignty and enslaving the once proud citizenry.

Not that it mattered. The Grasso masters were soon dead, poisoned by a tainted wellspring. All of this, the poisons, the war, the anger and hostility, could have been avoided had they only communicated with one another. But of course, if they couldn’t be bothered to ask about a meal, they certainly couldn’t be bothered to ask about the wellspring. Where the Riktu saw a poisoned stream and thought, “We should build a statue of a man vomiting so people will know not to drink from this,” the Grasso saw the sculpted face, so regal and majestic, and thought, “This must be the water of the gods. Let us drink our fill.”

- Originally mailed to C.F. in Florida