Today’s commencement address was delivered by Kathryn Sullivan, first American woman to walk in space. I thought her speech was interesting, informative and well received. She touched on most of the normal graduation speech topics: reflections of the past, excitement of the moment and expectations of the future.
The highlight was when she spoke of “conversation.” With all the technology we have available, we are becoming a people who don’t talk to each other. To “chat” means something completely different than it did ten years ago. We don’t ask face-to-face questions to each other. Instead we ask Google. As a result, many of us don’t even know our neighbors. Sullivan says we should have more conversations with each other. It’s good for everyone.
Personally, I have been working on this for more than a year. In the spring of 2006, I was reading an article on simple things that can improve brain efficiency. One of the things listed was having a conversation with a stranger. I don’t recommend this for children. The “don’t talk to strangers” rule still applies if you haven’t graduated from high school.
You only need to talk to someone for a minute or two. It’s pretty easy to do. The next time you are waiting in line somewhere (we wait in line all the time), talk to the person behind you. They will be in the line longer than you will be… because they are behind you. Conversation is easy because they likely have a cart full of possible topics. If there is no one behind you, talk to the cashier. Those people have thankless jobs. They will definitely talk to you if you talk to them. Don’t talk about the weather either. All the cashiers I talk with have name tags so I say something like, “Delilah. That is an interesting name. Are you named after someone?” That’s all it takes.
Did you ever notice how older people seem to know everyone? It’s because they have taken the time to have conversations with people.