Weekly Prompt TALK... get it? TALK... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA
So....
Are you happy? I ask because my friend Cori and I had a playdate yesterday while our almost five year olds raced monster truck hot wheels around the Beach. We got on the topic of smalltalk and I told her that asking "are you happy"? is usually the chase I cut to when held against my will in a round of one-on-one smalltalk. Like most people, turns out neither Cori nor I particularly enjoy smalltalk, which begs the question, the profound question: So, if two or more people are doing smalltalk and no one wants to be doing it, why are they doing it? Just imagine the thought bubbles!
When's there's simply nothing else I can say about the weather or Jude's milestones, I segue: "So how about you? You pretty happy with life? Things a-okay?" I guess it's the smalltalk version of going deep. I mean, its' still encased in small talk—folks pretty much answer the same way they do about the weather, myself included. "It's all good. It is what it is. You know. It's life, right? I mean, right? Compared to last year, I can't complain! Could be a lot worse, there, ya. It's nice they opened up a new shop, there, and they serve little muffins so that really brightens a day, you know."
Sometimes I love smalltalk and find it overwhelmingly endearing because what could be more human than smalltalk? Even Jude is getting the hang of it, adapting to the social conventions, thanks to me (How are you Jude. Good. How was school? Good. What'd you do? Nothing. Did you make a project? I don't know.) And... for many reasons, I also feel fairly George Orwell about it, but I won't go there now... not in the mood. And you? What is your smalltalk of choice? What do you talk small about? How do you feel about it and what are you thought bubbling while small talking? Any funny smalltalk stories? As always, write until you feel it is enough and feel free to send it my way!
And... if this topic really makes you wonder, consider joining Cori and I for our upcoming Yoga and Writing Retreat on February 18. We'll be moving beyond the smalltalk and into the love of the moment, the fun, aliveness, nurturing and loving yourself by just doing nothing. No smalltalk required to be loved. We're back and quirkier than ever. So if you missed it last time, or even if you already attended come on over to the Beach for another day of self love 101. Still a few spots left! Check out the corkboard at the website... I think it's posted a couple times and hopefully you won't have to search more than ten minutes to find it. Hopefully the dates and times coincide. We sure have fun here, don't we?
Hope to write with you soon!
TALK... get it? TALK... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA
Rox
Roxanne Sadovsky
612-703-4321
rox@writingwithrox.com
www.writingwithrox.com
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When you wrote last week that we could ask any questions at all, I assumed that you meant that would be fielding questions about the meaning of life, like our own oracle. I didn't have questions about writing,just then, but I do have several questions about the meaning of life. Will you entertain these questions as well? I started out writing about my meaning of life question, "What is Vital?" I looked up the definition of those words in the online Miriam Webster dictionary. The definition of "vital" is the capacity to live, grow, or develop. It also means physical or intellectual vigor; energy. All things I hope I have. And "vitae" seems like a Latin version of the same word, so I looked that up as well, it means "a short account of a person’s life." So I started writing a short (very short) account of my life, just covering the last 14 days, or so, which feels like a manageable chunk for me. So that covers the time period I was skiing in Colorado. When I was standing at the top of the last rise of the day, exhausted after a day of high altitude mountain skiing, (badly acclimated, and dehydrated) trying to be brave, and I could see the chalet below me, a ski patrol guy skied up to me after watching me ski very badly down the mountain to that point and asked this question, "Are you having fun?" All of the lift operators ask the same question, "Are you having fun?" And I know that the ski patrol guys don't intend for you to over think the question. They are probably trying to quickly determine if a person is skiing badly because they are having a heart attack or just a bad skier. But I always over think questions like this. Which probably makes me look like I am having a heart attack,which I wasn't. If you can't answer a simple yes or no question with a simple "yes" or "no," then I think you must be a writer. I always want to take a question like are you having fun, and break it down into smaller parts, the early part of the day, the time at the top, riding up the lift, looking at diamond-like ice crystals the size of my cellphone in a snowy meadow at the top where no one else had skied. There were no tracks but mine. I saw a crow and a squirrel, and we were the only ones there at all, and the air was thin and cold.It was completely silent. The air smelled sweet, and was good to breathe. The panorama of all of the mountaintops around me made me stop and wonder how I could be standing in this spot, with crows and squirrels and ice crystals, and maybe Norse gods, and all this blinding sunlight. I did have fun. Twinflower.
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