By Staff
Schools are back in session and the leisure days of summer are giving way to the busy fall schedules and routines, in spite of the fact that summer continues until the Autumnal Equinox on Sept. 22.
Mature hues of late summer color still invite some serious porch sitting.
While afternoon naps will become less comfortable on the porch, there is still a lot of time left to enjoy sitting and talking.
Talking - something we all do quite naturally but often carelessly and without much thought.
What do you talk about?
Talk takes time - it can't be rushed or summarized.
Talk is a vital link between the past and present and a portal to the future.
Talking connects people to people.
Stories, especially, are important forms of talk. Stories hold life together. Stories hold the histories of communities. Stories support memories. Stories entertain friends. Stories are the lifeline of families.
Storytelling is an art, an art that I fear, at times, is in danger of disappearing.
It doesn't seem that people take time to sit and talk and tell stories.
People don't seem to gather often to share their lives through stories.
Our communication has become more parallel rather than interactive.
We listen to entertainment -music, movies, plays - beside each other but fail to interact with each other.
We read to gain knowledge but fail to share what we've learned with others.
We either read or listen to world news but stop short of analyzing it with someone else.
Seldom do we hear of someone reading a novel, poem or essay to another person - it's comfortable to read to a child, but it's more difficult to read to an adult.
We do more thinking silently than orally.
Our communication has become more like monologues rather than dialogues.
I'm determined to keep the art of telling stories, oral history and thinking out loud alive and active!
The porch is an ideal place to encourage the art of talking.
Away from the television and phone, one can focus on the company of family or friends and communicate - face-to-face!
We have a few close friends whose company we enjoy because we share a lot of stories, history and just plain good gossip. While we do spend considerable time discussing ideas, we spend considerable time just plain talking - talking without agenda or stated purpose; the talk flows freely from topic to topic with joyful abandonment.
Our schedules are so full at times that I become parched for just plain unhurried talk - talking without any purpose except to connect and bind me to another person. It takes time to talk, to be with people, to sit with another. It takes time to ponder with a friend. It's slower processing ideas out loud than silently with myself. But this is time I can't afford not to take!
Talking helps us to get in step with others. It is discovery. It is sharing life stories. Most of all, it builds community.
Our lives are woven together for better or worse - woven in stories, histories, anecdotes, fables, humor.
Talking is an art that needs to be cultivated and preserved.