What do you do when asked a question or involved in a conversation you think isn’t appropriate? Do some questions or conversations about money, sex, health, politics, family or work make you uncomfortable? Is it questions and conversations with certain people that make you squirm? What about stranger conversations like the person next to you on a long flight?
The Holidays bring us closer in proximity to strangers and family members than other times of the year. We are in lines more often, at parties, on planes and trains, and visiting. Does this proximity breed familiarity? How often have you had to say that a conversation makes you uncomfortable? How often do you change the subject matter to a conversation you feel is more appropriate? How often do you walk away, get up or leave?
Over the years I have been on long flights when seat mates have told me about their lives with-out my soliciting any information. I have heard about marriages and children and job regrets. I have heard about home conditions and business dealings and sex lives that made me use the “I am not comfortable talking with you” statement many times. I have been asked to pray with, hold hands, look at pictures, take pictures, taste food and toast drinks. Last week something new was asked of me. I was asked to witness and sign a health directive for a stranger. I told him I was not comfortable with his request. We happened to be on the same elevator.
I understand that talking with strangers is often easier than with friends or family, but a health directive? Isn’t that the conversation you want to have with your family or at least your attorney? Isn’t that a question you need to ask someone you know? I ended up feeling a bit like Scrooge in turning him down. Who else has had a similar situation?