I’ve been away for a few days at a family funeral. As is often traditional, the funeral itself was followed by a few hours at the pub toasting the departed. I’m quite a fan of spending a few hours over a couple of pints with friends, but I’m a long way from this particular set of relatives. Among the skills I lack to fit in are the ability to drink a lot, the desire to inhale the smoke from burning leaves, and perhaps most importantly the ability to form opinions and expound upon subjects I have no interest in. I phrased that last one carefully – I can form opinions free of the burden of knowledge with the best of them, but I rarely do so if I have no interest. By contrast my pub-mates of the last week would hold forth readily on subjects which I knew they knew nothing about, and in some cases where nobody knew much because it was utter conjecture. This did not limit their ability to make definitive statements on these topics, of course.
I’ve always known I’m boring, perhaps my inability to compete at random blather is one of the symptoms.
3 Comments
Inability to compete at random blather? You blog, don’t you? Perhaps that’s random blather on your own terms, rather than in a competitive venue.
But you’ve got us curious about which topics were covered at this gathering.
Your entry brought to mind this quote from Mark Twain: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
It seems to me that the best way to get good at this is to read the Daily Mail… everyone (well every Brit) I know who could compete in that arena seems to share that interest.
A typical sampling – “The bloody council’s going to tax dustbins*, and not going to lower the cost of anything else**. They should pay us for recycling***”
* – Possible, not yet policy
** – Possible, but as yet just made up
*** – Yes, because the planet you live on has unlimited resources, it’s just Council employees that you’re saving.