My family and I befriended an individual from our church many years ago. He was the organist of our parish for years, and when my sister began singing in the church choir, our friendship with him grew, and today I see him as a sort of grandfather figure to me – I consider him family, and while there is a stark age difference between him and I (he is in his 90s), I absolutely consider him to be one of my closest friends.
My mom and I visit him every now and then, and we did recently to wish him a wonderful holiday season, and also to give him some of my mom’s coveted shortbread cookies. We had a wonderful time, as always, and driving home, my mom and I couldn’t help but draw attention to the fact that whenever we chat with this man, the conversation is always fantastic. We discuss all sorts of things: agriculture, current events, history and more, and time absolutely flies when we are with him as a result of the brilliant conversation.
After our last visit with him, my mom remarked to me how seeing him is especially meaningful for her, because the topics we discuss are ones she discussed with her own parents when they were still alive. She commented on how he is one of the few people we have honest and solid conversations with, and I couldn’t help but agree.
How often do we run into people we haven’t seen in ages, only to propose the most meaningless, dull and empty conversation possible? “How are you?” Good. Yourself?” “Good.” And that’s about as riveting as it gets with most people these days.
I wonder if we are all so caught up with ourselves and our own lives that we are unable to give pause and consider the last time we had a decent chat with anyone about anything. How about you?
Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
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