Filler

During a phone chat with a close friend, I had to chuckle, because while she was relating a recent experience, she suddenly blurted, Blah blah blah. 

She caught herself rambling and decided to stop. This entertained me immensely. Later in the conversation, I asked her something along the lines of: If you cut out the crap, then what? We both liked this one. 

Are you guilty dear reader, of wasting your own time, or someone else's, on details? I will admit, I have killed a bit of time on nonsense...

Grizzle filler

I like hamburgers, especially the homemade kind. Every once in a while, when I bite into a meat patty, my teeth chomp down on bone, or a tiny ball of chewy fat. This bone and grizzle filler, detracts from the enjoyment of the hamburger eating experience. When I think about it, I start to wonder what else might be in there, that I wouldn't like to swallow?

I will tell you here and now, I always finish the hamburger, despite a slight feeling of disappointment from the unpalatable filler: a little distraction won't keep me from staying with the eating plan. 

The same goes

The same goes for when I am in a conversation, and my companion has the floor. I don't mind a little filler, I can stomach it, but man alive, I have had some one sided conversations that seemed to last an eternity, and no matter how I tried to redirect the other person, they were oblivious to my despair, at finding myself trapped, and looking for a way out. Getting to the meat of the matter was near impossible, and all I got was cauliflower ears!

For both of us

At this point in our conversation dear reader, I am the talker, and it is my responsibility to make it worth your time in the listening, or the reading, as it were. If while with me, you are nodding off, or you start wondering what you can scrounge up for lunch, chances are good that there is a whole lot of filler coming at you from yours truly. That, would be terrible, for both of us, and so...

As the listener, or reader, it is just as much your responsibility, as it is mine, to limit the amount of filler permitted in our sharing; if this exchange is not mutually beneficial, then what, exactly, is the point?

Small talk is cheap

While we stay in the conversation, the opportunity for a truly meaty exchange with a satisfied feeling, may be lost for both parties, if we are not conscientious toward one another, as talker and listener: a partnership is possible, and learning how to engage is valuable. 

Above, I said I liked home cooked hamburgers... choosing the right ingredients makes or breaks it for our taste buds: choosing how to interact in relationship is very much the same. 

What do you say, filler or no filler? Small talk is cheap, nasty, and hard to digest. 

Let's get to the good stuff faster, shall we?