Over this past weekend I found myself in three different social situations in which I was more or less habituated to take a background role in conversation and let others dictate the flow and content. Coming away from it all, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. On the plus side, this doesn't leave me overthinking later on about whether I misspoke about something and offended anyone. But on the minus end, it all kind of left me bored since I know many of these good people out there have skills and interests, some of which they could help me develop if the communications were more directed and substantial (and interesting). As I make my way into the wonderful world of retirement, I'm seeing more effective interactions with acquaintances and strangers as a kind of personal challenge. And since there is no shortage of people out there, there should be plenty of opportunities to experiment with this conversational tactic or that. But it's all pretty uncomfortable...I tend to be on the far reclusive end of "introvert". On the other hand, enduring others going off endlessly with their boring rants and tedious talking points is uncomfortable as well...might as well get them talking about something I care about...
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