A great deal is made of effective communication these days but we seldom give credit to the true masters of this art/science—babies! Seventy percent of communication is non-verbal, giving infants the edge from day one. While we handicap ourselves choosing inadequate words, a baby connects and engages with eye contact, facial expression, movement and sound. A baby is nearly 100% effective with their 70% communication resources. We struggle to do half as well.

Of course we would not want to elevate form over content. What is communicated is surely as important as how, but babies also out-perform us in that regard. Virtually every infant demonstrates better sense about what is important than the average adult. Their desires are infinitely more sane and manageable than our endless appetites.

What we will call the generation that succeeds Generation Z is subject to speculation, but first they will be our babies. Theirs will be the fresh face of innocence that restores our soul—the faces that makes ours brighten the moment we catch sight of them. Those with seemingly the least to give—babies—most readily fill an empty heart. What has a baby given you? Got no baby? Then send Valentines—everybody is somebody’s baby!

“The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”

— Joseph Priestly