Category: Communicating

To Speak or not to Speak

A writing life is one of solitude if writing in crowded spaces is not conducive to creative thought.

While writing fiction might entail living within the confines of one’s imagination, there emerges the gratitude for precious moments spent with close friends and family who understand the writer’s period of ‘absence’ from the social hub. The art of conversation keeps books alive as stories unfold, are morphed and recreated to generate hours of pleasurable reading.

 

Precious moments are often a coffee catch up and soulful reconnecting.

 

Being in the moment, in conversation with the person should be valued for the human connection with authentic people who do not pry, question only when needing honest clarification, and accept the sheer pleasure of personal engagement.

 

 

Being in conversation with someone, seeing their joy and fear, hearing their laughter and feeling their moments of distress is priceless-no mobile phone interaction or other social media platform can replicate the shared face to face rather than face-time interactions. To be able to reach out and touch someone’s hand to console them or share belly-aching laughter is the essence of human communication and interactions.

 

I recall some years ago being in a restaurant in LA, having an early dinner, after a day of sightseeing, when I noticed a young family, parents and two children at dinner with heads down, eyes glued to their handheld devices as they scrolled through their distractions, eating dinner in silence.

 

Cyberspace engagement in favour of human company is creeping into relationships, eroding the exhilaration of animated or quiet conversation between and among people. This makes those in company, particularly the elderly, for whom a virtual world does not equate with social engagement, feel ignored or unimportant.

 

Looking someone in the eye as they speak to you indicates you are present in the moment and responsive to what they are saying. Attentiveness says you are valued.

 

My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company. ~ Jane Austen

 

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative~ Oscar Wilde

 

A single conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a month’s study of books. ~ Chinese Proverb

Are we slipping further and further into an age where the only conversation we might be exposed to will be the dialogue in a novel?

 

Are you keeping the art of face-to-face conversation alive? Share today what you value the most about conversations with good friends and family, or if you have a different view. Please share your views in the comment box below.

 

Fertilising the Imagination

 

When access is denied, imagination provides fertile ground for creativity.

The absence of television in apartheid South Africa was strategic, to keep the masses ignorant regarding democracy and justice in a bid to thwart the emerging voices of resistance. Avid reading and listening to the radio for recreation offered many hours of joy in a world where outdoor games were limited in apartment blocks.

 

 

My About page with a brief biography on my origins as born in South Africa meant that I had a childhood in an era devoid of a television set in the family lounge room. The only ‘moving pictures’ apart from the local cinema were those created in my imagination.

 

Radio held its own fascination with the popular weekly, Friday evening, crime fiction episodes of, Squad Cars. I listened intently, forming images in my mind about places and situations in each episode. My rite of reading passage into the world of crime depicted through voices and sounds grew each week. Crime/Detective/Adventure fiction in children’s books from the Famous Five series to Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and ultimately Agatha Christie’s and Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories were hunted down each week at the local library. Visions of snaking queues of children lining up, thirsty for their favourite book is imprinted in my memory. Such were the days…

After school radio programs for children were eagerly anticipated, excitement gained momentum with the chatter of voices speculating what  Noddy (by Enid Blyton) would be getting up to and whether Mr. Plod, the policeman’s kind and watchful eye over Toyland would save another day. Empathy for the skittles who did not seem to care whenever they were run over, filled my waking and sleeping hours. The imagination was ablaze with stories that wove into the stories of my mind’s eye. The imagination was fertilised with self-created images of places, characters, and events. An emotional investment of compassion for those who struggled or were mistreated and revulsion for those who harmed others was set in motion.

Listening and reading awakened the inner being as fodder for the imagination in the years ahead in the creation of my own stories – in the adult years, I turn back to my own voice recordings of my reactions to places I have visited, places that I have been moved by, to mulch and refresh an evocative sense of place through the voices and visions of my characters.

Audio books are a blessing, like reading is, to supercharge the imagination for a personal take on people, places, and events that ‘moving pictures,’ with all its commendable grandeur, might not quite fuel.

‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere’- Albert Einstein

What do you think?

 

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