Why whine about the wine

This blog is inspired by the glass of mediocre merlot sitting three inches to the left of the computer. I could go in greater detail but I fear I would be going the way of certain French hyperrealistic literature of 20 years ago. Such activities are to be refrained from. I had lunch with an old friend with whom I meet about once a year in January. He comes to Fort Wayne for an annual business meeting and we make sure to have lunch. Old friends with whom one can speak openly are to be cherished for they are rare. Brenda Ueland wrote a piece on our need to find someone to tell our stories to and without those listening ears, we tend to move away from our deeper humanity (or our truer humanity) and into the conventional realm of polite, yet stulifying discourse. I would not go so far as to call it conversation because conversation has a much deeper effect. True conversation can change both parties. The opposite of true conversation is a hurling of doctrines at each other in the pattern of "I'm right and if you refuse to agree with me you must be wrong." I've experienced far too much of this sort of discourse over the years to have any ear for it any longer. Civility is a lost art which, I hope, is making a slow comeback. One more point of hope to lay upon the new President.