Talking Story

I left Hawaii a week ago this morning and still haven't been able to slot back in to my Seattle life and routine. Part of it is the absence of Aloha, the Talking Story culture, the ability (and expected behavior) of walking up to anyone on the street, smiling, saying hello and beginning to talk about anything and everything at any time. This differs from small talk. Talking Story is not weather talk or niceties, not hows your family or did ya catch the Mariners last night on the tee-vee. It is about what you are feeling, what you did last month, how your dreams are coming along, what you perceive in the air, and it is asking your Talking Story partner, often a stranger, the same sorts of things.

My first few days back were filled with people giving me the stink eye when I tried to do it here. Cell phones were nervously fingered in pockets. Eyes darted and throats cleared. Uneasy smiles. Because this is a culture of small talk. It's funny, but I'd just listened to This American Life before I left for the Island, and heard an Ira Glass experiment where instead of talking to people in queues about the queue or the weather, you ask things like "So, what would you really like to be doing in your job?" or "How having you been sleeping lately?". The shift in culture is almost instantaneous, once people get over the jolt of it all.

It's been a hard adjustment so far, even though I was only gone for 12 days. Nevertheless, I think that every place could stand at least a bit of Aloha, so I'm taking it more upon myself to give my presence and my story to others I meet randomly and asking for the same things. It's only one of the many changes that my trip will bring into being.

Looks like much more Story to Talk...

Good to be back.