Speed Meeting
I don’t like how we don’t have time for each other anymore. I am terrible at getting to know people, new people mostly, because I hate small talk, I hate faking interest and I hate that I have to call it that. It’s not that I don’t find people interesting or engaging or that I want to spend the rest of my life only knowing the people that I know now. It’s not that getting to know the people that I know now in a deeper way would be so bad.
I guess it’s that I’m torn because I get caught up in the fast pace too, and I almost believe I have to move along with the pace. I was riding in the car with Pat once and he shared his observation that there’s something inside all of us that doesn’t like it when someone’s going faster than us, that when we’re on the highway and someone goes speeding past us we instinctively speed up. I don’t know if it’s competitiveness, maybe it’s that survival of the fittest hogwash, who knows. But it’s stupid. And I’m stupid because I do it too.
Back to that getting to know people stuff. I like getting to know people, I just hate doing it like in the blink of an eye. I hate having to ask someone where they’re from, where they went to school, what they’re interested in. Rather, I enjoy company, simmering conversation, conversation that’s stewed not grilled. I like it when I find something out about someone by experiencing it, not being told. I think that’s why I like God and why I didn’t for so long, because I was being told who He was but I wasn’t experiencing. If you’re like me, don’t let anyone tell you who they are, who God is. Experience them, experience Him.
And for heaven’s sake, slow down. Especially on the Beltline.