Tonight was spent talking to complete strangers. Discussing – when it was that we stopped being a child? Memorable conversations with our parents? Who has influenced us? The premise of the evening being the reigniting of conversation as a skill. It was a dinner organised by The School of Life and did honestly feel like speed dating for the brain. For each course you moved seats, were given another list of questions that you could explore with your fellow dinner , that led to stories about them and how they think. Some people were interesting. Some a little boring and others just not on the same page.
As an example, when pondering who people would like to have as a friend one fellow wished to be friends with a drug dealer – I am not sure why – but apparently there was a dentist in his home in Naples (!!!!) who also had an intriguing side business in the drug import-export business! And this fellow had always wished they had been friends. The list of questions were interesting and certainly helped to avoid discussion about the weather. As Oscar Wilde once said “conversation about the the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative” and let me tell you I have spent quite a bit of time lately perseverating on the weather – well who can avoid it as the leaves turn ever so slightly Autumnal… but I digress into poor conversational habits!
The evening was quite the revolution for my neurons. Made better by the fact that you were safe in the knowledge of never seeing these people again. So I suppose slightly different from speed dating when you hope to meet someone you would like to see again!
The venue was also rather lovely. It is called the Frontline Club not to far from Paddington, yummy food but also is a place that champions independent journalism, particularly in war and conflict. So does in fact host its own series of interesting events.
I am to tired to write more about what was discussed but it was an interesting night and will leave you with some of the questions and quotes we were given:
“Who have you encountered in yoru life who has really stood out and why?”
“How has your social life changed over the years and what has influenced these changes?”
And to finish a great quote from the very quotable Oscar Wilde….”Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.”
