I have just noticed after all these years(?) that people, myself included, rarely think carefully about what they say to other people.
When I say carefully, I mean do they consider what that person might be interested in?
They rarely say to themselves:
"I wonder if this person is interested in the fact that I bought 2 new tires for my car yesterday?" Or:
"I wonder if this person is interested in how many grandchildren I have and how wonderful they are?"
I mentioned this to one of the players at badminton last week, and she tellingly said:
"No to the tires, but yes to the grandchildren!"
I often have trouble with small talk, as I would much rather discuss the war in Ukraine or Evolution.
Going down the Evolution trail is fraught though, because of the religious connotations. So I very rarely bring this subject up for that reason.
What can you say about the war in Ukraine? Not a lot, except we all agree Putin is an evil man!
Which leads to our concept of evil. I am not religious in the sense that I adhere to any particular faith, so I hope I can make my own mind up about this. Having said that all the coincidences that I have posted about certainly give me the idea that there is some power at work in the universe, with a 10% chance that maybe there are such things as long coincidences with the universe set up as it is?
As far as evil goes, is a wasp evil because it kills a bee? Is a shark evil because it kills a fish? Are monkeys evil because they sometimes kill and wipe out another tribe?
Maybe it is as simple as: what is right and what is wrong? How do we decide?
