Topics of Conversation

When I had lunch with my buddies at work, the discussion turned predictably to sports, wireless networks, and MP3 players. A previous lunch with a different group of guys sounded pretty much the same, although due to the advancing age of the participants we touched briefly upon the merits of low-protein versus low-fat diets.


Ina and Dianne, now a minister in Boston. Teenaged boys pay more attention to sermons these days.

I like to go to Pam’s dinners because of the women. The few men present—all husbands—listen bemusedly as the conversation swoops and swerves from the love lives of our mutual friends, to brushes with the rich and famous, to the unusual behavior of our children and parents, to recipes and retirement dreams. Periodically, remembering her manners, one of the women would ask what I thought about some topic. I would bat her question with a nondescript mutter, and the ball would carom off the bumpers for another hour.

Many of us were classmates in high school. I thought I knew what was going on, but it’s clear now that I was oblivious to what was really happening between students, students and teachers, and teachers and teachers. My dinner companions pat me on the head and give me the red pill.


L to R: Dianne, Reiko, Bob, Pam, Mike, Ina
© 2003 Stephen Yuen