The Art of Conversation

I came across this article today on CNN.com, about how to keep the conversation going with your spouse after you've been married for 20 years.

Maybe I'm just completely crazy, but really, after you've been with someone that long, what is left to talk about? Other than your day at the office or whatever?

Of course, I'm not the most sociable person on the planet, and I often find that I'm searching my rapidly diminishing mind for conversational topic when attempting to engage in coversation. I fail at that a lot, and we have prolonged, awkward silence, where she is assuming that she's said or done something to offend me or has totally shocked me, and I'm wondering if she's up for a twenty-minute dissertation on the impact of the film Alien because at that moment that's all I can think of.

Cover of Alien (The Director's Cut)

That, or the wonders and mysteries of heavy metal music.

Other people don't seem to have this problem. People who sit next to each other all day at work and hang out together after work don't seem to have this problem. I have eaves-dropped a few times, though, and have discovered at most of the conversation appears to be the same few phrases being repeated over and over again. In short, they really aren't having a conversation, they're just making noises.

Which is what leads me to believe that conversation really is over-rated. Hey, if the sex is okay (at least you're getting some, right?), and you can tolerate each other, and you aren't keeping secrets, then what else do you need, anyway?

Of course, since I'm perpetually single and have given up on dating, this makes me an expert on the subject.