I say, I say I say…..


When was the last time you had a stimulating conversation?

 

I’m not even sure what I mean by “stimulating” these days. Conversations usually begin with an exchange of news, don’t they, and develop into a sharing of details about the interesting people we’ve met, the places we’ve been and the experiences we’ve had.

 

But if there aren’t any trees falling in the forest, and there’s no-one around to hear them ….well, you get my drift. There’s absolutely nothing happening in our lives and while we’re all desperate to connect with one another, there’s only so much traction you can get out of your latest Zoom call or Netflix box-set.

 

Actually that’s not strictly true if you consider the elephant in the room. COVID-19 is the main topic of conversation on everyone’s lips - from the moment we wake up in the morning to our nightly check on the latest figures.

 

I went for a walk with one of my best friends yesterday – an intelligent lady with whom I regularly exchange views on a variety of different topics. But after we’d exhausted the usual COVID chit-chat we were back to what we’d watched on TV.

 

At one point, she started to tell me about the time her tax disk blew away in the breeze and was lost forever. So I countered this with my own story about receiving a parking ticket - a mere few hours after seeing a car exactly like mine which also had a parking ticket. Neither story would have passed muster down the pub in normal times, even if they had actually been topical. But since both of these events occurred around 10 years ago I had to ask myself: What on earth have we come to?

 

Luckily, we’re all in the same dull old boat these days which means there’s no-one around to call us out on our boringness. The other day I found myself describing in detail my latest Asda delivery to a friend over FaceTime. I checked myself mid-flow but then I glanced at my friend - and she was engrossed.

 

We’re like prison inmates, all desperate for news from the Outside to give us something, anything, to talk about.

 

This dearth in conversation is of course just one more knock-on effect of this whole sorry business. But I suppose there’s something to be said for being reduced to the same level as everyone else. At least we’re no longer obliged to look at anyone else’s Caribbean winter sun photographs or hear a long-winded account of their skiing holiday.

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