SMALL TALK

Okay it might be trite, but small talk is what you get from small minds. Perhaps the more generic and popular interpretation of this phrase applies to the concept of conversation of a more intimate nature or about things that are general in terms of importance, but I want to focus instead on how I experience it.

And in my world small talk is what I get from people who are other than mover or shakers in reality, but what to impress you just the same. So the want to take the smallness of their life and talk about it as if they were somebody famous.

Listening is a part of my job of course. And believe me there are times when I wish it wasn’t. Because it does get tough at times to sit and listen to some guy who pumps gas for a living try to tell me how he in some way is doing something to control oil prices.

Now for me the basic rule in this realm is that if you real life is other than in a limelight then I suggest you do not try to shine a light where one doesn’t exist. I’m sorry, but if you aren’t truly a success or great at something I’ll admire you more if you act that way. I’m not saying you have to act like some loser, but do be yourself. Don’t try to embellish on you meaningless existence by pretending it is more meaningful than it is.

After all whom are you really trying to impress, me or yourself? If it is me you are succeeding. Because you may be a voter and I’ll tolerate your small talk, but in terms of worrying about what you think, I’m probably not going to that much.

That is the key to me on this whole thing. Do you have any actual power beyond your imagination? Power comes from position and wealth. If you have neither and talk as if you do then all that is to me is small talk.

Actually there are a number of ordinary folks I honestly do enjoy talking to from time to time. But the ones I enjoy the most are the ones who act like themselves. If he is a security guard, then he talks like a security guard and not some genius that has simply been the victim of prejudice. That’s one of those little tales I get told by some people who want me to believe they are in between jobs of greatness. In some cases it appears that the person has been in between those jobs for years!

I do my best of course to take all this insanity in stride. Honestly it can be tough at times not trying to take away somebody’s obsession with small talk that at least gives him some since of dignity. And Lord knows I’m hardly in a place to preach about the need for honesty in what you say.

I just have this personal view I guess that I prefer to deal with people who truly accept who they are. It is just an issue of principal I suppose, but it is so much more fun to deal with people who wear masks and don’t try to spend hours explaining how the mask I see isn’t really there. That wastes so much time in the small talk that keeps from being able to really talk about things that we can enjoy. A Limburger rule to be sure, but it works for me.