Color to a rotating conversation...

I was on the phone last night with my Aunt Carol. She is easily one of my favorite people on the planet and someone I do not talk to often enough. It has actually been awhile since we were on the phone as we have mostly been communicating via email and the web. But like riding a bike, our dialogue was constant and familiar like no time had passed. For some reason it struck me this morning that I don't have conversations with anyone else like I have with her, yet I try talking with other people like I do her. Confused? Let me break it down...

When she and I start talking, we begin a thread- a topic if you will. We will get in a sentence or two before one of us asks a question or initiates an entirely new thread- often about something else completely unrelated. This continues on and before you know it, we have about five different threads and topics all taking place. Where it becomes magical and interesting is that we continue to bounce back and forth from each thread and neither of us ever miss a beat or get confused. I can only imagine what we must sound like if someone were to just sit back and listen to us. It's akin to someone who reads several books at the same time (ironically, I am someone who likes to read just one book at a time).

Where this seems magical when she and I are talking, I realize it becomes selfish in other conversations because I am always throwing in unrelated questions and thoughts when the person I am talking with maybe hasn't completed their thought. They view me as selfish and uninterested, unaware that I always come back to the topic at hand, I'm just trying to add more color to the ever rotating conversation.

I caught myself doing it last night with Apple during dinner. Maybe it was more obvious to me because I had just hung up with my aunt. But I realized I was skipping from topic to topic. Apple does well at following along, but it is an attribute that I love about my Aunt and I just felt compelled to share it as well as make myself more aware of it. And to also take a moment to apologize for anyone who thinks I am losing interest or not listening when we are chatting. I am just adding color to the ever rotating conversation and I will always come back to the topic at hand...

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A teacher of a fifth grade class gave her students an assignment. The assignment was to ask their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it.

The next day, the kids came back and each had a turn to tell their stories.

"Peter, do you have a story to share?" she asks one child.

"Yes, ma'm; my daddy told a story about my Aunt Carol. Aunt Carol was a pilot in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail over enemy territory and all she had was a small flask of whiskey, a pistol, and a Swiss army knife. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't fall into enemy hands and then her parachute landed in the middle of twenty enemy troops. She shot fifteen of them with the gun, but ran out of bullets. Then she killed four more with the knife, but the blade broke. Then she killed the final soldier with her bare hands."

"Good heavens!" said the horrified teacher, "What kind of moral did your father teach you from that awful story?"

"Don't mess with Aunt Carol when she's been drinking."