One Friday, I got a phone call from a student as he was
getting ready to fly home to Canada over the weekend. “I’m having a problem. I can’t get my BOM to explode.”
Now what he should have said was "I can’t get my bill of
material to expand properly."
What the airport worker heard was, “I can’t get my bomb to
explode.” To top it off the student was
of Somalia descent. There was most
likely a bit of profiling. But I really
can’t blame the airport security. They
had no idea the student was on the phone talking to his instructor about an
inventory bill of material. It took
three days and a letter from the company sponsoring the training to get him
released. He missed not only his weekend
at home but also a full day of training.
After sharing the story, he warned us again. “Don’t talk about BOMs at the airport. They
just don’t understand.”
When we know what we are talking about, we often say things
that are in context and innocent to us. Others
around us that have a different viewpoint can easily misinterpret our innocent
words.
Dale is a very specific person and I create words all the
time. I frequently hear myself saying, “I
interpreted your words that way” when he says a word out of place. On the flip side, when I make up a word, I
hear back, “I think you are lying to me.”
Perspective is such a unique point of view.
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