Shawn spotted this in The Onion.
NASHVILLE—In what onlookers described as an epic war for conversational dominance, girlfriend Amy Soisson, 28, clawed, battled, and interrupted her way to complete control of an anecdote started Wednesday by her boyfriend, Greg Harvey, 29. According to sources, Harvey was in strong command of the tale's settings and plot points until a brief hiccup in detail gave Soisson an opening to pry custody of the anecdote from Harvey's still gaping mouth. After several futile attempts to recapture the story at its climax, a weary and broken Harvey fell again and again to his girlfriend's ruthless strategy of speaking over him in increasingly louder tones. The long and arduous contest of wills reportedly concluded with Soisson ascending to the rank of sole storyteller, forcing Harvey to retreat to the kitchen and share the anecdote with friends there.This made me laugh. I'm often struck at how easy it us for us to interrupt each other and I know I'm guilty too. What a difference it makes when we give each other a bit more space.
Permalink
Email me
Facebook/Johnnie Moore
Linkedin/Johnnie Moore
Twitter/johnniemoore
Last.fm/johnniemoore
Del.icio.us/johnniemoore
Technorati/johnniemoore
MyBlogLog/JohnnieM
Blog/Johnnie Moore
Comments (1)
Agreed. I suffer from Speakingover Syndrome and have to consciously bite my tongue in even everyday exchanges. A lot depends on trust - 'you will come back to me and let me say my piece before its irrelevant won't you?', time 'I can let this run because we're not in a hurry' and tolerance 'I will listen even though I know what you're going to say and anyway it's the third time you've said it!'. I've often wondered whether a primary school game could be invented to make this kind of delayed gratification fun.
February 5, 2008 13:19 Permalink for comment