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Joseph Rivers's avatar

This is a wonderful reflection Todd. I feel the same as you about small talk, I struggle to open up sometimes and often feel like I don't have anything interesting or light hearted to share about my own life - I'm much better at asking questions. My father in law, however, makes it look easy and seems to have stories or anecdotes for everything!

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Sadia Kalam's avatar

I tend to ask questions that don’t always have a gentle start up, so I liked your approach to having deep meaningful discourse with the right amount of small talk. As a mother in the suburbs, I find young “kids” and babies to be a great entry point for me, and it’s unlike anything else. Like people are so eager to approach people with babies, at the mall or public places, and have small talk, maybe even encouraging talk “you’re doing great, it’s hard but it gets easier trust me it’s not always going to be like this” Like on airplanes when you try to help the nervous parent with the fussy child just by smiling. It gives me hope in our shared humanity that people can still have small talk that grows deeper. Thank you

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