Member-only story
Tell the Truth, All the Great Lies are Taken
The way you speak says more about you than your business card.
I must admit sometimes I tend to be an abysmal conversationalist. Of course one has the ability to flutter and charm and entertain when required, but in truth, sometimes like a leather back turtle, I curl into my own thoughts and listen. Is listening such a bad thing?
Recently, over a glass of wine as I waited for a Barcelona match to start, I drifted back in my chair and drank in the table of conversation that surrounded me.
I was soon accused of being in a bad mood or melancholy, (a bore to many) to which I responded with innocence. “No,not at all. I’m just listening.” My girlfriend sighed. Oops I thought, I have to be more charming. On this evening, I failed, quite happily.
My ears tuned in to the tables in my vicinity. One which I couldn’t help but not hear was to my right. A couple were, like me waiting for the game to begin, and one half was pounding the virtues of the right to freedom of expression without the necessity of factual relevance, because expression was emotional — not factual. I glanced at the other half, jaw leaning on palms, propping the weary head, the near comatose expression on the listener encouraged my ears to drift away from their table.