The other day, I ran into an old friend and had this exchange:
Me: "Oh my gosh, look who it is!"
Her: "Hey, how are you? I haven't seen you in…what, two years?"
Me: "Yeah, wow, how have you been?"
Her: "I've been really good."
Me: "So what have you been up to?"
Her: "Oh, you know, just stayin' out of trouble."
…
So, being me, I couldn't help but consider the alternative. What if the conversation had gone differently?
"So what have you been up to?"
"I'm actually in a lot of trouble right now. Thing is, I murdered a guy a while back, and it's been—well, you know, it's just been really tough to keep my head down, and…yeah, I'm just in a bit of a bind, but I think I'll be alright. What about you? What are you doing these days?"
I so hope that no one takes offense at my pointing out the banality of some most of our small talk. But maybe think for a minute about how you answer polite questions. With a little effort, you could really spice up the conversation.
