What to Talk About When All There Is To Talk About Is What You Don’t Want to Talk About
Or should we just shut up already?
If I recall the last conversations that I’ve had with friends and family, 9 out of 10 of them involved “I’m so tired of talking about this.”
Yes, you know what “this” is. The new big ‘C’ (as opposed to the old big ‘C’). The pandemoniac pandemic. COVID-19, COVID-20, and now COVID-22.
When we look back in history books to the time B.C. (before Corona), people often led fulfilling lives, sought out new and old experiences, and then talked about them with friends and family. The results were astonishing.
Today in most of Canada, we find ourselves in the middle of lockdown #42 (perception counts more than facts, here), and our ability to seek out new or old experiences has plummeted into the Valley of Death.
Brainstorming ideas of what to do actually include visiting the outside of tourist attractions in the gloomy below zero weather. Knowing how desperate it sounds, we give up before we started.
Ring, ring.
“Hey babe, how are ya?”
“I’m alright, I’m alright.”
“Whatcha do today?”
“Oh you know, take a shower, make a soup.”
“Cool.”
Silence.
This is EVERY. SINGLE. CONVERSATION.
Of course, this is how the cat comes out of the bag. The cat in this case is what we all are so tired of talking about: vaccines, COVID politics, case counts, COVID politics, masks, testing, and COVID politics.
So, here are 10 “did you know that” conversation starters to pull out of your bag. Deflect and defeat, baby.
- Did you know China is already working on 6G?
2. Did you know drones are saving lives in Rwanda?
3. Did you know aquamation is cremation without a carbon footprint?
4. Did you know that they are 3D printing human corneas?
5. Did you know China has created a fusion reactor 5 times hotter than the sun?
6. Did you know that Bitcoin mining uses more energy than entire countries, including Pakistan and the Netherlands?
7. Did you know that there is the possibility of life on Venus?
8. Did you know that you can buy heavily discounted food before it expires using an app?
9. Did you know that they have mapped deforestation and forest growth in every country over the past 30 years?
10. Did you know deep conversations with strangers can have surprisingly pleasant results?
Let me know if you have tried to spice it up a bit and have some other conversation starters when we don’t want to talk about “it” anymore.
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