Three different people today called me eloquent; 2 as comments on something I wrote and 1 on something I said. I never feel eloquent. I'm not sure how to feel about being called eloquent; I know it is a compliment but I do not have a feeling about it other than a feeling of hope that something I meant got across to other people.

Some think it is a gift. I have never thought of it as a gift; so many times growing up I fought and failed to be understood. Since I could not change the way others thought, I had to change the way I communicated - and to this day, I still do. It is rare for me to simply go charging off, writing thousands of lines of text or ad libbing ad nauseam. I simply try to get my thoughts across to other people.

Sometimes it involves humor. Sometimes it involves a more serious tone. Sometimes it means a whisper, sometimes it means a shout. Sometimes it means reaching out to the reader with grubby hands and rattling them, and sometimes it is the finger over the shoulder with the unspoken, 'follow me'.

Eloquent. Maybe, at times, I am. But isn't that the point to communication, to be concise and appropriate? To express how we think as clearly as possibly, as simply as possible, as understandable as possible? Shouldn't we all be eloquent? Shouldn't it be the blue jeans of speech and writing, to be eloquent? To be understood, to understand, to think?

I hope so. And it is because of that I feel a cold shiver run up my spine when someone calls me eloquent; it is not a pedestal to place others on. It is a path that we should all walk on.