I am a stranger in a strange land.

I’ve done something more notable than even Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals. (Yawn.)

I went out in the world and listened. To another person. Hells to the yeah.

It was the most startling experience.

A conversational pause does not mean the person has finished speaking.
–Tom B. Taker

Interpreting every single pause since the dawn of time as “my turn to talk” means you are an asshole.
–Tom B. Taker

My wife was speaking to me. I was listening. Wow. I know. It can happen. Okay, okay. Stay calm. Don’t blow it. Keep it together, man. So far so good.

Then she paused.

This was an industrial heavy-duty kind of a pause. A good ten seconds. In today’s world that is literally an eternity. I had my feelers out. Was she done? Was she waiting on me to comment? Was it my turn?

I still don’t know what came over me but I decided to wait. I was in it for the long haul.

Then, simply, she continued. And she expressed an additional thought that added more to what she had just previously said. A thought that, if I had interrupted, I would never have heard for the rest of my life.

This is it, I thought! The land of milk and honey over the rainbow. That land that assholes never get to see.

It was so earth shattering that a few days later I even tried it again.
Continue reading →