This quote from Garrison Keillor made me think of Joanne and our differences in conversation. Many years ago, when she was flying much as the President/CEO of Lutheran Services of America, she accumulated many frequent flier miles. As a gift to me she used some of those miles to upgrade me to first class on one of my trips to Bangkok. After I arrived in Bangkok I received an email from her asking about my flight. My response was something along the line of "it was good." You're not surprised that she found the brevity of my response under-whelming. 😛
Sometimes I would tease her saying that "everyone has a lifetime quota of words and if that quota is reached before death a person is mute for the remainder of life." Her response "I'll just borrow some of yours." When she was convalescing at home after surgery I'd put out an SOS to her friends "Please call or visit Joanne because she's trapped at home with a monosyllabic introvert."
Yes, I married "someone who is (was) good company and can carry one end of the conversation and sometimes (often) both." Had I do it over again I would try harder to keep up my end of the conversation. The presence of absence is often the most evident at those times when we would have been in conversation.
Takk for alt,
Al
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