One evening we arrived home with stars visible in the night sky. Orion was just peeking over the tree line. We’d recently attended an event at Morehead Planetarium where they mentioned this particular constellation, and I took the opportunity to point it out to the family.

The youngest, 2 years old, couldn’t make sense of my description. He believed I’d seen a lion and was understandably scared. The middle child, 4 years old, dutifully fulfilled her role as an older sister and trying to explain it. She kept repeating, “No, it’s not a’rion, it’s a’rion.” Translation: It’s not a lion, it’s Orion. The oldest, 7 years old, understood it all. She understood what I was communicating as well as where her siblings were falling down.

  • How often does the audience lack the maturity to understand our message?
  • How often is the our delivery of the message too immature to understand?