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Finding conversations can be way more difficult than it should be sometimes. Sometimes, it just seems like people don't really want to say anything. They don't want to share their thoughts. They want to tell people what they are or who they are, and maybe touch on some of what they believe, but they don't want to really talk to anybody.
I went out on thursday night. I went alone. I do this sometimes so that I can just go out and meet people. I love meeting new people. I enjoy getting some variety in what I talk about, hearing new ideas is fun. Considering people's views and challenging your own beliefs is also really quite fun. Telling people why you really believe what you believe and sharing the thought process that brought you to your belief; seeing if you can change people's comfort level with you and seeing how well you can expand your tolerance for the views of others; all of these things, I find quite fun.
Sometimes, it seems like others just don't. I went to some bars. I listen to several conversations at once. I pick up tidbits of each deciding which one to "crash". I hear two guys talking to a woman. They are all talking about people driving too fast and following to close on I-70. It's an easy conversation. Everybody has feelings about it and they are all the same. I think, "I can jump in and talk about the 60+ car pile ups that happen on rare occasions," but then I realize that these people are engaging in an easy conversation for a reason. They don't really care, they just are trying to keep things flowing and conversation like that allows that to happen. None of them is in the conversation to listen. They are in it to agree with eachother. If I join this conversation, I will feel hungry. They will probably resent me on some level for trying to increase the depth of their conversation which is not meant to be deep. I may come off as a "know-it-all". I could hijack the conversation, but I opt not to. I go to a different bar.
The cycle continues. I sieve each conversation around me looking for something worthwhile to jump on. I'm disappointed way more often than I should be. I do find a good conversation with a geologist and an engineer from Florida. I get to mention the fact that ice on continents sinks them and that when it melts, the landmass will rise, but that the level of crust is actually below sea level when there is a glacier on it. I get to explain why I believe in Christianity to some degree and hint as to which questions I have had to answer for myself. I get to talk about how intelligent elephants are; that researchers have found that they have some semblance of language that allows them to communicate in frequencies too low for humans to hear and that their trunk is tactile and compares somewhat favorably with our hands as tactile tools that let them manipulate their environments and that their memories REALLY are terrific. The geologist lady brings up that elephants have been known to mourn.
It takes a long time to sieve through so many vapid, innate conversations, but a nugget can be found. I talk to people about drugs and the affects on minds and how it compares with psychosis, we have conversations about cooking and how different types of starches thicken liquids differently. We talk about conversations and people's reluctance to engage in them (Actually what inspired this post.) We talk about so many things.
Because, if we want to, we all have so many things that we can say. And if we are willing to listen, we can learn from anybody and everybody, but it can be work, so I go on looking for new people to converse with and being glad that I've met the ones that I have.
Being fascinated by something feels great. Considering new ideas feels terrific. Learning new things is one of the best things to do in life. I wish that more people shared in that passion.
EDIT: I just wanted to add that I talked to that geologist lady about the USGS on the Colorado School of Mines campus and I told her it was a major government installation with snipers on the roof and everything. It was pretty outlandish and when you say stuff like that, it's fun to look at people's faces when they hear it.
I went out on thursday night. I went alone. I do this sometimes so that I can just go out and meet people. I love meeting new people. I enjoy getting some variety in what I talk about, hearing new ideas is fun. Considering people's views and challenging your own beliefs is also really quite fun. Telling people why you really believe what you believe and sharing the thought process that brought you to your belief; seeing if you can change people's comfort level with you and seeing how well you can expand your tolerance for the views of others; all of these things, I find quite fun.
Sometimes, it seems like others just don't. I went to some bars. I listen to several conversations at once. I pick up tidbits of each deciding which one to "crash". I hear two guys talking to a woman. They are all talking about people driving too fast and following to close on I-70. It's an easy conversation. Everybody has feelings about it and they are all the same. I think, "I can jump in and talk about the 60+ car pile ups that happen on rare occasions," but then I realize that these people are engaging in an easy conversation for a reason. They don't really care, they just are trying to keep things flowing and conversation like that allows that to happen. None of them is in the conversation to listen. They are in it to agree with eachother. If I join this conversation, I will feel hungry. They will probably resent me on some level for trying to increase the depth of their conversation which is not meant to be deep. I may come off as a "know-it-all". I could hijack the conversation, but I opt not to. I go to a different bar.
The cycle continues. I sieve each conversation around me looking for something worthwhile to jump on. I'm disappointed way more often than I should be. I do find a good conversation with a geologist and an engineer from Florida. I get to mention the fact that ice on continents sinks them and that when it melts, the landmass will rise, but that the level of crust is actually below sea level when there is a glacier on it. I get to explain why I believe in Christianity to some degree and hint as to which questions I have had to answer for myself. I get to talk about how intelligent elephants are; that researchers have found that they have some semblance of language that allows them to communicate in frequencies too low for humans to hear and that their trunk is tactile and compares somewhat favorably with our hands as tactile tools that let them manipulate their environments and that their memories REALLY are terrific. The geologist lady brings up that elephants have been known to mourn.
It takes a long time to sieve through so many vapid, innate conversations, but a nugget can be found. I talk to people about drugs and the affects on minds and how it compares with psychosis, we have conversations about cooking and how different types of starches thicken liquids differently. We talk about conversations and people's reluctance to engage in them (Actually what inspired this post.) We talk about so many things.
Because, if we want to, we all have so many things that we can say. And if we are willing to listen, we can learn from anybody and everybody, but it can be work, so I go on looking for new people to converse with and being glad that I've met the ones that I have.
Being fascinated by something feels great. Considering new ideas feels terrific. Learning new things is one of the best things to do in life. I wish that more people shared in that passion.
EDIT: I just wanted to add that I talked to that geologist lady about the USGS on the Colorado School of Mines campus and I told her it was a major government installation with snipers on the roof and everything. It was pretty outlandish and when you say stuff like that, it's fun to look at people's faces when they hear it.
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