The Lost Art of Conversation

A co-worker and I were talking yesterday when she informed me that one of her friends had "gone low-tech". They got rid of their cell phones, computer, etc... all the way to the television. She talked about how refreshing it was to go to their house to visit and actually have conversation.

I wish. How I wish.

Don't get me wrong here, I like my computer, I think my cell phone is great. I'm pretty ambivalent about the TV; there's hardly anything on most of the time and I'm confident I could live without it.

What I find myself living without, more and more often as I grow older, is conversation. Just sitting around and talking. It doesn't happen much in my house, unfortunately. Son and I talk, but it's mostly about his issues, not just conversation for its own sake. And Sweetheart has totally bought into the "More Is Better" techno-void. Seriously, we have a television in almost every room of the house. If he's in the kitchen, the radio is on (the talk channel, naturally). Sometimes he'll be on the computer in the living room in front of the TV. The man believes this is multitasking--I call it certifiable. Again, don't get me wrong--we do talk. But we really don't have much conversation.

The more I think on it, it seems the only true conversation I have is with my family. When I visit my sisters or my parents, we talk. And talk. We gorge ourselves on talking. And it's fabulous.

I wonder what the future will bring. I wonder sometimes if Son will be able to sit down and have a conversation without checking his cell phone or turning on the TV or whatever. (Side note: the other week in church, some kid in front of us was TEXTING. During CHURCH. I was completely appalled.) I wonder, when Sweetheart and I are old and there's no more jobs or anything, if we'll be able to talk beyond small stuff. Days like today I wonder if Sweetheart and I will make it together to old age if we don't converse now.

Okay, enough. I'm getting depressed.