Sic Semper Tyrannis

The Sanctity of Conversation

You know, something has occurred to me as of late. I wasn’t born here in Oklahoma. I was born in the Deep South-- Savannah, Georgia and lived there until I was in fifth grade. That’s not was has occurred to me. What has occurred to me is one area in which I doubt I’ll ever feel “at home” here. Namely, how Oklahomans do conversation around other people.

Let me start by saying one of my huge pet peeves is when people talk to me when I’m on the phone with someone else. It strains my nerves- something about sensory overload. I see myself as one person who can only devote attention to one thing at a time. I would hope that if I’m ever talking to you in person, that you appreciate that my complete focus is on you. To me, that’s just common courtesy. If someone’s going to the trouble of communicating something to me, I, as a listener, should make him or her feel important. I’m pretty sure I learned this from my parents but I’m starting to think that it might be a regional difference of cultures. And I’m finding out that what I thought was “common courtesy” is actually “uncommon.”

I’m noticing more and more a nasty tendency of some people to interrupt me when I’m clearly engaged in conversation with another person. This goes against everything I’ve ever known. You see, in my book, when you see two people talking, you approach them, stay at a little bit of a distance, and wait to be acknowledged by one of the conversants. This displays a certain amount of humility in a person, to be able to wait. You don’t make yourself a butt-inski and begin talking to one of the people about something totally unrelated. And if you can tell from a distance that these two people are engaged in something more pressing than idle chitchat, move along. For contrary to what might be in your head, whatever it is that you have to say is not so important that it can’t wait.

Now, I say that this might be a regional phenomenon because I never had this problem when I was a kid growing up in Savannah. And I know what you’re probably thinking, it’s happened my whole life and I’m just now realizing it. That could very well be. And I hope for the sake of Oklahomans that it is true. Otherwise, the children I talked to when I was a kid in Georgia were more adept at polite conversation than some of the adults I know now. But the people of the south do have a reputation for being laid-back and courteous…

So, if it really is a regional phenomenon that people from the Deep South respect the sanctity of polite conversation more than people here in Oklahoma, what is the cause? I wonder. Put on your thinking caps, people. I’ll expect an answer in my box no later than 3:00 today.

So, all of you interrupters out there, you know who you are. Maybe you ought to make a little resolution for the New Year. Something along the lines of:

“I resolve in the New Year to not interrupt Mike when he’s trying to hold a conversation with someone else. God knows it’s hard enough for him already. I resolve to wait my turn.”

As a side note, at the end of my senior year in high school I was nominated for the award “Most Polite.” And I would have won it too, if it weren’t for that bastard Kareem Graham.

posted by Mike @ 10:41 AM