We have been without a television in our house for about three weeks. Well when I say without a TV that is strictly not true. The TVs have been there, its just that we have not had any signal from the aerial to the TV. We came home from being away for a few days to find that despite the fiddling with all sorts of controls on the sets our sons could not get a picture. I suggested that they look at the chimney where the aerial had been located – and of course it wasn’t there - the aerial that is. It had somehow come away and had lodged precariously between the last set of slates and the gutter. It was still pointing in the right direction – as one of the boys stated – yes, but I had to point out – there is a big gap between the lead which has snapped off at the top of the chimney and the aerial which is at the bottom of the roof!!

Now, I am not going into a long diatribe about the merits of not having a TV. There were some, but for me it just meant that I spent more time on the PC – which is probably just as bad. In fact I quite missed some of the programmes and I am glad that I can catch up with some of the Top Gear episodes on the “Dave” channel (what a strange name!)

No, what struck me about the loss of our aerial was the challenge that we had in getting a picture back on our TV. You see the means by which the main TV transmitter on a hill near Callington communicated with my TV had been broken.

Communication is key to us – so much consultancy work that I have carried out suggests that effective communication in an organisation is always at the heart of problems. Effective communication between husband and wife, parents and children, us and God is always a challenge and if not worked at will result in a failed relationship.

Let me tell you what I found out from my aerial experience.

First of all I knew that at some stage we would have a problem. I had noticed a few weeks previously that part of the aerial had broken away from the bracket that was holding it. This had the affect of the signal occasionally being lost but we could put up with it.

With hindsight when I had noticed that communication was not what it should have been why did I not do something about it there and then? Why had I not sought some advice on what to do whilst I still had a picture? Instead I waited for it to break and then I had a three week period of no communication and feeling isolated (a bit of an exaggeration – but you get my point!) before the repair man could come out.

Secondly when he eventually came out he took one look at the height of the chimney and said that it was illegal for him to go to that height without the use of scaffolding. The cost of hiring scaffolding would be enormous. Was I prepared to spend that sort of money and make sacrifices to restore communication? Well actually I wasn’t - but for the purpose of my point we may have to make choices which might cost us if we want to restore communication.

Now my aerial man was resourceful and he tried different points in our house where he thought a new one could go. He had this little receiver thing around his neck and with a fully made up aerial he went up and down the ladder around our house trying to find a signal. He reminded me of one of those wildlife programmes where they put a transmitter on an eagle, or something, let it go and then try to track it across four continents with a strange looking aerial that gives off a “ping” if the bird is in range!

How important it is that we keep trying to find a way to communicate. Sometimes it will mean trying new things or new ways – the old way may no longer be working

Eventually he declared – this can be sorted but I will have to reposition the aerial a little lower down … and you will have to cut down the fir trees that are a barrier to the signal.

Now I did not realise that the trees were a barrier. In our lane most of the houses have trees in front of their house – what was special about ours? The trouble with ours is that we had allowed them to grow too high and too thick and they were too close to the aerial. We had become so used to this barrier that we could not “see” it.

We do get used to things. Familiarity with things can bring us comfort but we also need to work at ensuring familiarity does not become a barrier. Sometimes familiarity can isolate us – as the trees did from the rest of the world – sometimes it can be selfishness on our part – we only want to communicate with those we want to communicate with – but at the end of the day unless they are dealt with we lose the signal.

So we had the trees cut down – and one of the immediate benefits was a release of light into an area of our house that had not seen such natural light for years. This had the affect of course of showing up more of the cobwebs etc. and we had to have a good clean out – but that is another story… of light coming into darkness…

And our aerial man came back.

He had to work hard at fixing the wires etc. He was still working at height and the equipment was heavy and bulky but I appreciated what he was doing for us as he restored the communication link. Then came the test… he asked me if I thought that it would work…well I didn’t know did I? – He was the expert. He said that I had to go and turn on the TV – in other words it was ME that had to try it out, I had to make sure there was communication – not just rely on him. I did…and it did. More than that when he came in and fiddled with the controller he found another 22 stations for us!!

You see when we work on our communication, with our loved ones, with our colleagues, with God then we get a better picture. And more than that we get to see more than we originally had.

Oh and by the way when you drive past our house you will see the old pole where the aerial once sat on the top of the chimney. A memorial if you like to some failed communication.

Till next time

Rich