A few months ago, I was invited to speak at an assisted living home. I was there in my capacity as District 1 Supervisor. After the speech, I received a thank you card from a resident. She hoped I would come back soon, and by the way (she wrote), she loved to read books and wondered if I did too. We corresponded for a few weeks and shared our favorite book list. I thought other residents at the home might like to talk about books, so I made arrangements to return and start something on the order of a "book talk."
I go to the home for an hour every Friday morning and lead a discussion group of residents. And what do we talk about? Books, yes. But we are now ranging around other things as well. In fact, the person who originally wrote the thank you note has put a name to what we're doing on Fridays. She says we are making intelligent conversation. We talked about that idea last week, agreeing that once you think about it, you know there is a difference between regular old conversation and intelligent conversation. It is the second kind we want the most. Our oldest participant (who is 99) said she thought that intelligent conversation was one of the most important things in the world.
Intelligent conversation. Who doesn't want that more often? I think it even helps you breathe better. I'm going to talk that up as I go from here to there. And how the whole idea started with a little thank you note.
