How Will Conversation Fare in 2012?

Here's my prediction: conversation will be valued more than ever in this year.  It won't be easy, though.  There is decidedly too much insincere talk going on, especially around politics.

But that challenge aside, why should conversation do well this year?  Perhaps exchanges among my family and friends over the holidays are influencing my view.  I must admit we had our examples of the banal and the superficial.  We had people pretending to like one another when that was anything but the case.  But we also had people who--in some cases for the first time--genuinely tried to connect more meaningfully with one another.  I'm taking that as a good sign.  Maybe it is the fact that a young adult in my family died this year.  That experience taught us all, once again, of the randomness of both good and bad fortune, of the value in prizing each day for whatever it has to offer, and the importance of hugging those we care about even closer.

I saw the film "The Descendants" last night, the one with George Clooney and a terrific cast.  You probably know the story by now, even if you haven't yet seen it.  A well off real estate attorney confronts the fact that a boating accident has put his wife in a coma from which she will not recover.  The attorney is played by George Clooney with just the right amount of empathy, pathos and humor.  His character is left to deal with two young daughters to whom he has been only a "backup" parent in the past.  And, of yes, it is his elder daughter who tells him that his wife had been involved in an affair at the time of the accident.

It's a great setup for examining just what makes some families work well, and what tears others apart.  The conversations in "The Descendants" hit just the right note of authenticity.  You'll recognize all of them, perhaps even finding characters in the film mouthing words you heard from your own family members over the holidays. 

One of my 2012 New Years Resolutions is to catch myself when I find I'm being less than authentic in my own conversations with others, family members as well as business colleagues.  This won't always be easy.  In some cases I won't succeed.  But I'm going to try.