understanding is the need

That one mind can reach out from its lonely cave of bone and touch another, express its joys and sorrows to another – this is the great miracle of being alive together. The object of human communication is not the exchange of information but the exchange of understanding. If we are lucky enough, if we are attentive enough, communication then becomes a system for the transfer of tenderness. That we have invented so many forms of it - the language of words, the language of music, the language of flowers – is a testament to our elemental need for this exchange.
 
- Maria Popova, The Marginalian, www.themarginalian.org