Sitting at a resort pool, one has difficulty not listening to close-by conversations of strangers. Headphones are the only privacy resort at a resort.
But if one has no headphones at the moment, then listening reveals something about our species. With beer or tropical drink in hand and submerged to our waists, we talk incessantly under bright sunshine: Complete strangers who will never meet beyond the manicured grounds of relaxation chatting about...
Personal stories first. The “here’s all I want you to know about me” reflect off warming drinks and sunning torsos.
Then stories of place both near and far. The “here’s what I think about the resort, the food, and, oh! By the way, here’s a little something about where I live and the place where I work” filling the ears of people on nearby chaise lounges.
Finally, philosophizing. The “they ought and they should do something about…” coupled with general analyses of current social events drag the conversation into the abyss of ineffective chatter filled with Either/Or logic.
It’s as though we hear each other say, “Today, I have nothing specific to offer save what portrays my self image, my experience with place, and my general attitude about life in the world I left before I came to this resort.”
Listen. If you suspect futility is at work, it is. I’m not advocating unfriendly silence; I’m simply pointing out that on most days we have nothing specific to offer, nothing that generates any new ideas. In spite of that, we talk.
But having no ideas to advance the human condition is not what we need to do at a resort—nor in most other circumstances. The chatter, however meaningless and temporary, binds us. That ability to connect with a complete stranger for a brief time epitomizes our gregarious nature.
We don’t have to carry away from such conversations some deep meaning or new knowledge. Initiated by a chance gathering in a pool, easily struck conversations among people from different places reveal our commonality, and chatting strikes a similar note of belonging in the ears of those lying on nearby chaise lounges without isolating headphones.
Don’t have anything specific to say? Talk anyway.
But if one has no headphones at the moment, then listening reveals something about our species. With beer or tropical drink in hand and submerged to our waists, we talk incessantly under bright sunshine: Complete strangers who will never meet beyond the manicured grounds of relaxation chatting about...
Personal stories first. The “here’s all I want you to know about me” reflect off warming drinks and sunning torsos.
Then stories of place both near and far. The “here’s what I think about the resort, the food, and, oh! By the way, here’s a little something about where I live and the place where I work” filling the ears of people on nearby chaise lounges.
Finally, philosophizing. The “they ought and they should do something about…” coupled with general analyses of current social events drag the conversation into the abyss of ineffective chatter filled with Either/Or logic.
It’s as though we hear each other say, “Today, I have nothing specific to offer save what portrays my self image, my experience with place, and my general attitude about life in the world I left before I came to this resort.”
Listen. If you suspect futility is at work, it is. I’m not advocating unfriendly silence; I’m simply pointing out that on most days we have nothing specific to offer, nothing that generates any new ideas. In spite of that, we talk.
But having no ideas to advance the human condition is not what we need to do at a resort—nor in most other circumstances. The chatter, however meaningless and temporary, binds us. That ability to connect with a complete stranger for a brief time epitomizes our gregarious nature.
We don’t have to carry away from such conversations some deep meaning or new knowledge. Initiated by a chance gathering in a pool, easily struck conversations among people from different places reveal our commonality, and chatting strikes a similar note of belonging in the ears of those lying on nearby chaise lounges without isolating headphones.
Don’t have anything specific to say? Talk anyway.
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