The bane of a truly meaningful conversation is the irrepressible impulse to respond with the conditioned reflex of a professional Chinese table-tennis player. So many opportunities to deepen contact and create insight are lost to the compulsive terror many have of silence in the midst of a dialog, resulting in florid and feckless conversational patterns being spun, and the fractal equations of our unchallenged beliefs, behaviors, prejudices, and assumptions pre-determining the course and outcome of the conversation. I think they have a term for it in art – horror vacui – the mortal fear of leaving the tiniest space un-ornamented, never mind how gratuitous it might be. It takes a good deal of courage to punctuate an exchange with the right periods and ellipses. Every nanosecond of silence seems to be passing some kind of judgment, making people feel consumed by the fear of seeming wordless, mindless, unequal, or even worse, distracted.
It makes one despair all the more when the conversation involves the common theme of persecution and impotence. It is like trying to get a sheep to roar – you give it the usual smelling salts, and feel encouraged by the sudden sparkle in its eyes, and then just when you thought the world is about to change…it bleats…with the vague promise to work on its technique.
Notes to Self 
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