With (family and) three very good, close friends, I don’t bother too much about ‘social mixing’ these daze. The conversations that we four have are deep, comprehensive, and cover everything imaginable.
But when I venture out into public, I find there are interesting people who literally pop up that are more than willing to talk about themselves, their views, and their life. Such was the case with DK who drove me home from the car dealer yesterday morning.
As we walked to his van, D said “You’ll have to finish that book [I’d been reading] later.”
I said “Sure, there’s always lots of time and there will be other times.”
“Let me know how it comes out.”
Well, you know that you’re with someone interesting with a sense of humor and irony when you start a conversation this way.
It was the most entertaining, informational ride I’ve had in a long time. D talked about how the city is changing, where he lives and had lived, where he had worked in my area as a mailman. He spoke of his son and daughter who each had a son and daughter.
“Sounds like fate,” I said.
“Genetics, for sure,” he answered.
“Slow down here to 30,” I said. “It’s one of those school zones.”
“Yeah I got a ticket in the dark this winter, near the end of the time restriction. Just breezing through. No kids around though,” he reflected on that subtopic.
When he drove me up the driveway, I was surprised. No one had done that for me for a while. I handed him two toonies and a loonie. “Well, thank you for making my day,” he said pleased and surprised.
“Yes. Well, the price of coffee has gone up lately.”
Banter. The old back and forth. One topic after another. Entertaining and a good workout. It helps, though, to take an interest in people, to ask them questions to find out what you’re truly curious about. Virginia Woolf used to be the same as I recall.