The Fine Art of Conversation

I have this uncanny habit of soliloquizing. Although i don't think there's anything wrong with it, my husband thinks it's a bizarre practice.

I think it's probably my ADD. But seriously, there is a lack of fairly good conversationalists nowadays. The truly great ones, well, extinct.

I, for one, am not. I talk fast, really fast. To which my 8-year old would object, "No Mama, hyperfast".

Gone are the days of Cicero, Julius Caesar, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Lincoln. Modern day orators, politicians in particular, rely heavily on speechwriters.

I avoid the news at all cost but since my husband is a current events nut, seeing and hearing it is inevitable. I feel lika an a** everytime we watch televised senate inquiries. Take Senator J****** for example, he can ask intelligent questions - prepared ones, that is. Obviously not by him as I rarely hear a good follow up. As for impromptu, expect a 'no questions, your honor' reply.

A good conversationalist should be intelligent. Not necessarily scholastic, but smart and canny to a certain degree.

A good conversationalist, I suppose, should also be a good listener. After all, a conversation is a form of exchange. Oprah, in this case, is a virtuosa.

Wit, I think, is also a prerequisite. Jay Leno is a master of this fine art. Through his queries (and by the answer he gets) you can sense whether he's conversing with a genius, a nutcase, or a complete and utter dimwit.

A conversation is a discourse. It is not a monologue or a soliloquy.

So why the heck am I still here???

I really have to go now. I have a monologue to wrap up.