Conversation is not always easy to start without being trite. My husband and I have many disparate people with whom to converse, so we’ve actively worked on some conversation starters.
As a conversation starter other than “How are you?” or “How’s the weather/” (a Midwestern mainstay), I love to ask, “What surprised you today?” It is an open-ended opportunity to be delighted, not only in my own mysterious day, but also in the mystery of my friend’s day. Or a house guest’s day… a frequent occurrence since my husband and I moved to Southern California.
We’ve recently endured two weeks of consecutive houseguests. While they’re largely independent sightseers due to Uber and Lyft, their need to eat and talk, talk, talk pervades our daily lives. We find that people from Elsewhere, USA, often have preconceived biases about the area we love, so the question is useful. It’s a starting point to delightful, informative, and non-judgmental conversation.
It’s novel, just as the Southern California experience is. Sunshine engenders happiness and good times.
But, there are other conversation starts, distasteful in the extreme, certain to foster negative thoughts, words, and deeds. These days I’ve successfully identified – and avoid – those with a willful lack of tact. You know the type, the ones who’ve preemptively spout Trumpisms and noxious ideology for nearly twenty years. (!)
Yes, that’s how long it has been since his semi-imperious, malevolent, and capricious impact on our country, which has widened to the world and narrowed to our individual lives, has dominated daily thought and talk. It’s a blight, now more than ever, as his half-baked plans and policies adversely impact Americans’ pocketbooks.
“What makes you cry?” has long been a useful barometer for charitable donations one wishes to make. I’ve utilized it often in the past. Now, unfortunately, much about the shroud that Trump’s words and deeds have brought upon us causes me to feel anxious and – sometimes – cry.
I’ve got the jitters, and my daily chocolate ingestion is increasing my girth while not reducing my fears.
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