Blogvember post the 12th … chitter chatter is underrated

A while ago one of my favourite people, with whom I speak far less often than I would like, remarked on the value of chitter chatter. It is the talk you have where you don’t really have to say anything of import, but that the pleasure is just in the conversing itself. You talk comfortably and a rambling fashion in chitter chatter. Women are good at it, but men are too in the sort of conversation they have in quiet moments, when no one else is listening. Chitter chatter is best conducted with close confidantes where indiscretions can be swept aside and ignored. It is not the conversations you have that are programmatic. They are not about process, events, times and dates. It is about dreams, wishes, aspirations. It is about the ephemera of life, the insubstantial and the deeply important.

What is missing at present in life, to my mind, together with the art of conversation, is opportunity for chitter chatter. There are fewer and fewer chances for these simple interchanges. They are the glue that sticks people together. I miss them. I miss the idyl of the recent past when I could engage with people I love to talk to as often as I would like.

I am committing to make more time for these important and yet slight conversations. They are extremely important for my inner life and I have been ignoring them by privileging the business and the manic pace of working and looking after those I love.

Chitter chatter is best accompanied by campari spritzers