Families
Anzac Day weekend is the traditional weekend for the Rowcroft Reunion... this year in Perth. It began in 2002 when my grandfather passed away and it was the first time that the whole family had been together in quite some years... since then it's been an annual event occurring at various locations around the world.
It's a bit weird with my family. I feel like I have very little in common with them. Then other times, it's like they're the closer than my immediate family, then five minutes later I'll wonder whether I ever actually knew anyone. One weekend a year and that's apparently enough to get to know each other. I'm not convinced.
I think back to my time in France and we'd sit around the lunch table til 6pm and I'd be bored out of my brains because the adults were talking politics. It makes so much sense. All of a sudden people have something that spans the breadth of life that is relevant to everybody and that they are passionate about. But as a twelve year old whose French aural comprehension skills are pretty good for an Australian, it really doesn't make for scintillating lunchtime conversation.
The art of family and the art of conversation are two things that I find curious. Two things that I haven't truly mastered or come to fully appreciate. Why do I not want to talk to people? Granted, they're strangers often. But I often find myself sitting at lunch with someone/group of people, eating in silence, racking my brains, trying to find an interesting and relevant topic of conversation. And then I become conscious of the fact that that is what I'm doing and so it then has to be the perfect conversation starter and then I finish lunch and go back to work.
Yet, somehow, I still tell myself that talking with people is the most interesting way to while away the hours.
It's a bit weird with my family. I feel like I have very little in common with them. Then other times, it's like they're the closer than my immediate family, then five minutes later I'll wonder whether I ever actually knew anyone. One weekend a year and that's apparently enough to get to know each other. I'm not convinced.
I think back to my time in France and we'd sit around the lunch table til 6pm and I'd be bored out of my brains because the adults were talking politics. It makes so much sense. All of a sudden people have something that spans the breadth of life that is relevant to everybody and that they are passionate about. But as a twelve year old whose French aural comprehension skills are pretty good for an Australian, it really doesn't make for scintillating lunchtime conversation.
The art of family and the art of conversation are two things that I find curious. Two things that I haven't truly mastered or come to fully appreciate. Why do I not want to talk to people? Granted, they're strangers often. But I often find myself sitting at lunch with someone/group of people, eating in silence, racking my brains, trying to find an interesting and relevant topic of conversation. And then I become conscious of the fact that that is what I'm doing and so it then has to be the perfect conversation starter and then I finish lunch and go back to work.
Yet, somehow, I still tell myself that talking with people is the most interesting way to while away the hours.
posted by BSJ-rom at 1:56 am
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