Do you feel like the art of conversation is dying, or has been lost entirely? I do sometimes. Diane and I frequently discuss the growing isolationism in the culture (the latest manifestation being online video services, which have well-nigh eliminated our need to go the video store and actually interact with people). In large part I think the practice of conversing revolves around the idea of asking meaningful questions of the other party, and from personal experience–very objective, I know–I can recall many groups and individual conversations in which I’ve been involved where very few questions were asked. People rely on making statements about themselves which they hope will produce a reaction in the conversation partner, and when such a reaction does not occur (as happens frequently when two people have no initial common ground), they simply make another statement and the conversation quickly disintegrates into a protracted monologue unless the partner can elbow their way back in. <\/p>\n
Additionally, the cadence of conversations leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve done this myself. I’ve been so wrapped up in completing a thought, point or statement that although I paused in my discourse to allow the other person to speak, I will immediately pick up after they’re done, giving, at the most, a cursory nod to the observations they ventured without really taking into account the substance<\/i> of what they’ve said. It’s amazingly easy to do. If we would slow down and give the other person the credit of thinking about their observations, meaningful exchanges of ideas and opinions would be more commonplace and we wouldn’t feel so rushed<\/i> in talking to others.<\/p>\n
Good conversation technique takes practice<\/i>, as do logic and critical thinking, disciplines that are rapidly disappearing from our society. If one of the fundamental underpinnings of a democratic system of government is literacy, and if we define literacy as not only the ability to grasp the concept behind the things we read but also to use our knowledge to encounter and impact the world, then the erosion of those key exercises of literacy is profoundly undermining and weakening our culture.<\/p>\n
I miss Diane. Yesterday was a rough day emotionally, for reasons external to the two of us, and after increasingly busy days here at work I am very much looking forward to spending a quiet evening with her. She is so lovely, and I find rest in her beauty and tenderness. I never knew how essential those things were until I found them in her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you feel like the art of conversation is dying, or has been lost entirely? I do sometimes. Diane and I frequently discuss the growing isolationism in the culture (the latest manifestation being online video services, which have well-nigh eliminated our need to go the video store and actually interact with people). In large part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}