The Dance

The author recalls a moment in high school English class during which a seriously intellectual teacher asked a humorously interactive student to name the instrument being played by the damsel in Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan.

"A one-string fiddle," the student replied, thereby earning a trip to the principal's office.

He wasn't trying to be impolite, of course, but she took it that way.

This is the essence of the CMM approach to face-to-face communication -- in the dance, the partners have to agree on how to do the steps -- if they don't, it doesn't work.