INTERRUPTIONS

[Please consider today's post a "taster"--definitely more to come on this topic!]

If you're one of those fortunate persons who never gets interrupted, then feel free to go play solitaire or Wordscapes or wash your hair, or something.

For the rest of us--let's do a little dissection of INTERRUPTIONS.

Interruptions, in my experience, seem to fall into three categories:

• incidental interruptions - something I say triggers a thought in the other person and I get interrupted (usually causing me to forget what else I was going to say) (a mental power outage)

• intentional interruptions - something I say triggers a strong response of "Oh, no, it's nothing like that!" and an argument/discussion begins

• non-sequitur interruptions - I'm explaining something, and the listener says, "I never realized how crooked your front teeth are." Talk about conversation stoppers!

I might as well confess, right here and now: I don't like interruptions. They throw me off. They're like walking on a perfectly clear sidewalk and hitting the one patch of ice left from the last storm.

Any analysis of interruptions would have to include the big question "Why"--why do I respond badly to other people horning in on my thoughts and speech?

There are probably a number of reasons, but I can give you a few. For example:

• All my life I've been a reader. In a book, people continue to talk and recite and narrate, the story line proceeds, and nobody interrupted. Or, if they do interrupt, it all makes sense...on paper. Funny thing, though, real life doesn't work that way. People interrupt each other all the time.
• When I taught freshman composition I was the only one who talked. (This was back in the day--before online classes.) I presented the information, encouraged class participation, and often met only silence. Lulled me into thinking they were listening.
• Later, I had four little kids at home all at once; in order to keep things running smoothly, everybody heard (and learned, I hoped) the same rules. They seemed to take it all in.
• Finally, and probably the most likely reason, is the element of surprise. A close first cousin to interruptions, surprise throws me for a loop. Without a doubt, surprise is definitely not for me.

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You've probably heard the old expression: "There are two kinds of people in the world--those who say/do/act/believe (something or other) and those who don't."

In my experience, the words always and never somehow wiggle into that piece of pseudo-wisdom.

And in my further experience, one of the two kinds of people is more than likely to interrupt whatever it is that I'm saying at the moment. Not quite always, but certainly more often than never.

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See you another time with more on the subject of Interruptions. In the meantime, wishing you an uninterrupted and joyful week! 

Blessings,

Thursday's Child