07 May 2006

Break

Wow, a whole week without any posts. All to change shortly, I assure you. By way of explanation, let me quote a passage I read this afternoon in Richard Russo's Straight Man.

But my daughter belongs to a talk show generation that seems to be losing the ability to discriminate between public and private woes. She sees no reason she shouldn't tell her friends about her marriage, even encourage them to take sides, pass judgment. It's not even the knee-jerk confession mode that worries me most. It's my daughter's fear of silence and solitude that seems unnatural. If she weren't talking to her friends, she might be listening to other voices in her own head, voices she might benefit from hearing out. Instead, she telephones. When she runs out of people to call, she opts for electronic company, the television in one room, the stereo in the next. She may even consider these part of her support group, for all I know.

I'm having a discussion with the inside of my head this week. It's going well. I haven't wanted to intrude.

2 comments:

Lucky Bob said...

Oooo. I like those conversations. Sometimes some interesting things float out of the corners of the noggin.
I've been taking a break myself, but I should have something up shortly that explains part of it.
Oh and a friend of mine told me about going to some standardized test and they required everyone to give up their cell phones to prevent any messaging. This one girl apparently almost went into histerics about having to give it up. She couldn't understand. "What is if someone needs to call me?" They told her they would monitor the phones and if there was an emergency they would come and get her. After the test the first thing she did was grab the phone and run outside to call someone. That's messed up right there.
Have a good conversation, and if you want to fill us in on what you figure out.

J.D. said...

Lucky Bob, I believe were I that girl, I'd have to just shoot myself. But seriously, if you're going into a standardized test like the ACT or SAT... dude, just leave your phone in the car. No way on earth that I would leave my cell phone with some monitor who might just decide to step outside and use it to call his brother in China or download tons of stuff from the internet all the while charging me air time. No sirree.

Smitty, as for the conversation in your head, if I keep mine going long enough it usually spits out a good idea just by random chance