As I Was Saying

Dialogue: We all recognize it in a book. We even note those authors who capture real conversation with all its breaks and interjections. I expect that everyone knows great conversationalists-- those folks who can make the telephone book interesting and dramatic.

And we engage in conversation. We enter into a dialogue with another person or persons. Informal conversations happen in unlikely places and may be of a short duration. We don't expect to stand in the grocery line and become involved in a metaphysical debate.

I am stymied by two recent conversations and wonder how often I play a particular part.

In the most recent encounter I bumped into someone I once worked with-- a person I really like. She was with her husband.

I knew they had planned a walking vacation in the alps and she worried about being able to maintain the rigorous walking schedule. So I asked how the trip was, but I was behind in my chronology. They had taken that trip and another trip and were in the throes of planning a third trip in September-- a bit more rigorous than the previous jaunts.

I listened to the difficulty of planning these trips, the whys of going in September, and some other vacation items. By this time I needed to move along.

As I pushed my grocery cart I wondered how many conversations are really monologues.