I'll get to the wisdom bit later.
First, here is a great photo taken by the partner of one of my best friends. It shows why I love where I live, although I do harbour (excuse pun) fantasies of going to live on 10 acres in the country one day. The two white arrows in the top left show the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the iconic Opera House. Moving down to the lower right, the red blob shows our current and future homes, and the red X shows Phoebe's school, where I sometimes teach. If we ever get the house done, one day we'll have a little boat moored in the bay at the bottom ...
Now, back to the wisdom bit. On the weekend, I went to a 30th birthday party. The friend in question organised a wonderful celebration for herself - first we had champers and finger food at her place, then we went to the theatre, after which we had a Lebanese feast at Abdul's, somewhat of a Sydney institution.
The performance was Thom Pain (based on nothing). Here's the wiki entry, which doesn't really tell you much.
Two guests giggled throughout the show (I was mortified). Several others showed their erudition afterwards by bandying about words like 'postmodernist' and 'theatre of confrontation'. I was in one of those moods. I studied Drama and Postmodernism at university, but bit my tongue. As I get older, I hope I get slightly wiser, and learn to talk a little less and listen a little more. I suppose I really mean I wanted to tell them all to be quiet, but made do with being quiet myself ...
2 comments:
What a wonderful location -- so close to the heart of a big city, yet able to get away on the water. Near your work and near the kids' school -- perfect!
I've had the same experience as you leaving a classical music concert and hearing people who don't seem to know much about it speaking loudly about what they do know. I always wonder how they can have the confidence to speak so loudly while I, who have a bit of knowledge about the subject, wouldn't risk my opinions so loudly to a crowd. I love your expression -- that wanting them to be quiet, you were quiet instead yourself.
Maybe it's because when you know something, you're aware of the limits of your knowledge? Interesting. What was more, it was the older guests (not the 20 and 30 somethings) who were voicing the loud opinions. The youngsters were all just rather flummoxed!
Post a Comment