Re: Post for March 21, 2016 "The Lost Art of Conversation"

One ingredient of a rich story is rich dialogue. If we want our own life story and its dialogues with other characters to be rich, we must do our part in cultivating the art of rich conversation, instead of poor conversation.

Rich conversation colours the sky. Its rainbow includes many strands of vibrancy. An awareness of the chemistry between two characters. An adaptation to the unfolding dynamic. An intuition of the organic flow with an openness to move with it. A ridding of self-consciousness that disrupts the flow. An accurate feel of when not to hijack by saying too much or wallflower by saying too little. A mutuality that helps each person feel that their points are understood. The verbalization of freshly emerging impressions with an articulatory horsepower that allows the rubber of new ideas to furiously hit the road of expression. All while capturing the spontaneous individuality for both characters.

If we do not care about cultivating the art of rich conversation, we may very well end up with dialogue as poor as the characters of an impoverished story.

The Older You Get, The More It Takes To Fill Your Heart With Wonder, And Only God Is Big Enough To Do That

The title is a quote of Ravi Zacharias paraphrasing thoughts of G.K. Chesterton.

I'm feeling this quote just as the Toronto Raptors won their first ever NBA championship last night.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy they won. I do feel pride for my Toronto roots. For my hometown team.

But surprisingly, the moment wasn't what I was anticipating.

I think the anticipation of victory was more exciting than the victory itself.

I don't think basketball, the NBA, or being riveted on the NBA finals is sinful. But.... it just seems over hyped to me.

Was it just me, or did others feel that at the buzzer, it felt a little anticlimactic? Was it just me, or did people feel the destination seemed like it would be so fulfilling with high definition colours shining in thick rays? Was it just me, or did others feel that arriving at the destination seemed somewhat empty?

It felt like during this whole playoff run for the Raptors, competing for the NBA finals trophy was like fighting for an Avengers infinite stone. Only, when you got finally got it, it was, metaphorically, just a hollow, plastic trophy.

Ravi says something along the lines of "One of the loneliest times in life is when you just experienced what you thought would give you the ultimate satisfaction and it has let you down."

Mortal trophies. They rust.

I choose to train myself for an eternal championship with an eternal trophy that will keep shining in the age to come.