Conversations at Home
Suzanne Pollak
Three Women Drinking by Fernando Botero
The conversations in a restaurant are completely different than the ones around your dinner table at home.
Think about it. At a restaurant we mostly gather in groups - four, six, eight - as couples or a gaggle of women. (By the way, when the group is more than eight, the fun occurs once in a thousand times. I have the experience and expenses to prove this statistic.) Restaurant conversations rarely go deep. They are fun, hit the topics of moment, delve into the latest juicy gossip; but they rarely dive into the personal, the thoughts that cements connections. The banter is not always open, vulnerable, or honest about things that really matter.
But in a domestic setting, things change. Elsewhere, talk may slide on the surface, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Sometimes that’s what we crave! I want to know about your day and I want to tell you about mine. I don’t want to tell you the results of my recent mammogram, or discuss worries about a child. I want to escape for an hour or two and you are the person who is allowing me to do that. The surface is manageable at the moment...
However, if you want to open the door into your soul, even for a few minutes, being at home is a safest way to do this. Why? Because the rooms are where we eat, sleep, and live, so the spaces conjure up security and create a safe spot. This is opposed to restaurants where the vibe is: Let’s have fun, Let’s entertain & be entertained, Let’s be seen. A restaurant is not the place to unload your baggage for all the world to overhear. The home is the ideal place to satisfy that deep human desire to be vulnerable and strengthen relationships.