There was a time and not so long ago when, if walking along a street or wherever, and you heard someone conducting an intense conversation with nobody in particular you might be moved to great unease.
For who could this strange speaker be, apparently wasting his/her sweetness on the damp Irish air? And what might he/she do next to disturb the tranquillity of your little life?
In the good old days (nostalgia makes fools of us all!) our response would be to give such people a very wide berth indeed. They would be the talk of the town with boundary-less speculation on the nature and extent of their psychiatric condition.
I knew one such man growing up and the general view was that “poor oul’ John is harmless. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” He was and he wouldn’t.
Nowadays, it is so much different. Such solitary speakers are hardly noticed at all. Indeed it is not unusual anymore to find oneself alone among the hordes on a street, in a packed bus, or standing up in a crowded train while very many people conduct solitary conversations with no one in particular, apparently oblivious to those all around.
It is also the case that in such situations age, seemingly, defines the response of individuals who find themselves solitary among a mass of garrulous conversationalists. It is another chasm in the generational divide of our time.
In the case of older people, and as such apparently one-sided conversations progress, they become more awkward and embarrassed, feeling that somehow their listening-in on such private chat is intrusive, bad manners, unacceptable, albeit without alternative.
This remains so even as they explain to themselves it is not their fault if they hear every nook and cranny of the unwanted dialogue imposed on them by an indifferent speaker.
Not so with younger people who eavesdrop cheerily, having known nothing else, while believing correctly that if such conversation was private it ought not be conducted from among the hordes on a street, in a packed bus, or standing up in a crowded train.
In such situations to be older is not necessarily to be wiser anymore, as polite habits resist adaptation.
It is just another example of the impact on our lives of the widespread revolution we are living through due to the small phone in your hand
Phone, abbreviation of telephone, from Greek tele meaning far/distance and phone, for sound.
inaword@irishtimes.com
