Conversational fragments

Sunday: the world and the war

Yoga instructor: “How is everyone feeling about the war? Do you find there’s more aggression and tension in the world? That people are reacting to you differently?

"What is happening in the world does affect our lives as people.”

Fellow student 1: “I just feel so helpless. What can any of us do?”

Fellow student 2: “People are a lot more aggressive. There’s a lot of tension.”

Me: “Um – actually – I’ve had a really good couple of weeks …”


Last night, on a train after the comedy festival: styles of conflict resolution

Me: “So anytime anyone has issues they want to discuss with me, I tend to listen and feed it back. ‘I’m hearing three things from you: point one, two, three. On the first I agree with you, the second is really important, and you’re right on the third but I’d add – ’ You know, that sort of thing.”

Work colleague: “Don’t you find that as a lawyer? You start paragraphing and outlining people’s words in your head. Breaking it up into points.”

Me: “Um – yes, yes I do.”