Instead, upon meeting someone new more often than not, especially if I'm outside of my 'professional' context (literary theory, tequila, coffee, or wine), I say the wrong thing when I don't mean to, come off as arrogant (which I sort of am too but that is completely beside the point and actually has to be considered one of my endearing qualities because there is nothing I can do to change it), manage to insult the other person's values, beliefs, teeth, spouse, television viewing habits, hight, taste in music, children, hobbies, or some other less definable thing, or make inappropriate jokes that are not at all understood as humor. At all.
Sometimes stuff just pours out of my mouth, and well, you would know what that can be like if you've been reading this blog for a while. Stuff just pours out.
But there are some people I instantly click with, and then many more I really wish I would instantly click with but with some effort manage to grow on over time, arrogance, inappropriate humor and all.
Now I'm trying to grow on Lynne who was brave enough to visit me yesterday. At my house. She even ate something I had warmed up in the oven. And that is true bravery I tell you.
And I wish I could take back the ten whole minutes I kept talking about the road-system in Namibia (where I've never been), had asked some nice questions instead, and perhaps also nipped the incoherent babble about riding an elephant in the bud, and talked about something interesting. Like my hair. Or the municipal governance system.
But like Lynne guessed, I was on my best behavior, trying to contain the opinionated crazy lady, and for some reason that apparently meant talking about roads in Namibia. I mean, once you think about it, it makes thorough sense: Why not the roads in Namibia?
They are, after all, roads, and in Namibia, nonetheless. So yeah. Uhhuh.
This is NOT a road in Namibia. Also, it's not a road either, it's somewhere between a path and an alley. I think.
7 comments:
You just keep pouring girl (words out, wine in, whatever. Or maybe wine-in and words-out?).
Saw some photos of the (un)roads in Liberia, with cars stuck in mud holes the size of the Grand Canyon. I've never been to Liberia but found myself discussing their horrors as if I'd been stuck in the mud there myself. Well, in my own defense let me say I have been stuck in washed-out- by-tropical-rain roads like that elsewhere on the continent.
And for the record, I have also zipped elegantly along excellent roads on same continent. Just want to make sure I'm not contributing to perpetuating unholy stereotypes. Africa has enough trouble.
i seem to spend my entire life doing just this. there are some members of my family that still dont speak to me many years later.
i know a norwegian guy married to a spanish woman who has an austrian passport and who lives in manila but who owns a fleet of rental vehicles (and a restaurant) in namibia.
if that helps.
i think there's something about both roads and namibia in that...
It only happens occasionally, but I do admire the ability to speak freely about things just as you do. Some people I don't admire, but you, yes.
I wish I was more bold about things. I seem to be pretty timid; a lot more than I was actually aware.
Please, tell me your secret?
Always,
Ellie Grace
I wish I had a clue where Namibia was or how to spell it without looking back. grrr - will have to go Google now.
I love that you can single handedly insult so many different interests and areas in a persons life in one conversation it usually takes me three or four to touch on that many insults! ha!
Roads in Namibia? So, what about them? There must be something--
Hi, Nothing like speaking freely, or doing something freely because it is one's personal conviction. Human behavior seems to seldom get addressed between the person carrying out the behavior and the person observing the behavior, but folks will seemingly take the safe route and talk to a third-fourth-fifth party about the behavior or speech they observed.
I don't know if us "free speaker types" are admired, seen as arrogant, or ignored bi-en-large, perhaps a mixture of all 3.
When you dance to the beat of a different drummer on something you believe, it often seems like you and the personal conviction are compatible and the support from others is intermittent, but feels darn good when it occurs! I have never been "popular" per se but have become the stronger for living what I believe instead of settling for what I think others want me to believe and live...
I often wish the blogosphere were a set of tables with a 30 gallon coffeepot in the corner and we spend an hour or 2 a couple times a week in chit-chat. Perhaps eternity will accord us that. Meantime, come visit my blog or just say hello.. http://graftedinandonthejourney.
blogspot.com
David (mellow roc)
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