This week I have been inspired from an unexpected source – a poem from a friend titled, ‘Conversation, that’s my drug’. I will leave it to him to decide whether or not to share his poem and his identity as a comment on this blog! I hope so.
Anyway, I found myself ashamed that I hadn’t got in touch with this warm-hearted friend in over a year. I hadn’t found time for him because I have been focused on building my business and, despite connecting with all sorts of contacts and friends over the past year, rather than *seeing* him as a source of friendship and thoughtful stimulation, I *didn’t see* him as a potentially useful contact for business. He is a bit like a human bumper car because his eyesight is failing him – but perhaps it’s me who could see things better.
So this poem got me thinking about all those times when my conversations stay at a superficial level, often appropriately. But maybe life can be richer if more of those chats (and more time) was spent exploring more meaningful subjects.
With a little help from a couple of books I have read (see below) and some thinking time in the bath, I came up with an idea for randomly stimulating deeper conversations: Wisdom Dice -one with 6 challenging concepts, the other more aspirational. It’s important to use both at once, and whatever two subjects come up, that’s what you have to include in your conversation. Simple. You can give yourself time limits if you want and then roll the dice again! Why not make some up and give it a go – I’d love to hear how it goes!
Here are my suggestions for what to put on the dice:
1. Meaningless; Complicity; Aloneness; Death; Expertise; Judgement
2. Uniqueness; Belonging; Purpose; Freedom; Accepting; Noticing
nb. I accept no liability for any tears, anger, hugs, laughter, love or energy which may result from using these powerful dice.
Take care
Books:
‘Love’s Executioner and other tales of Psychotherapy’ – Irvin Yalom
‘The Dice Man’ – Luke Rhinehart
