Please Ignore This Message

I find a good portion of human conversation to be unnecessary. A lot of the communication we choose to have with each other—or rather, at each other—serves no purpose beside being said for its own sake.

Why does it seem like some people never stop and think about what the contents of their words mean to the recipient? In some cases, I suspect because the answer would be 'nothing' close to 100% of the time. For instance, in what way does something like "If I'd a known you didn't have one a these, I'd a brought one" give the recipient anything of value? How does the information he could have almost had something improve his current situation? I guess at best the sentence conveys a vague feeling the speaker woulda helped you out if only he'da known, but as warm fuzzy feelings go, that one is kinda tepid and threadbare.

In fact, that whole "if only" can of worms is a rant of its own, an activity that some people seem to love to wallow in. And if the image in your head when you read "wallow" is of a pig in his sty, all I can say is that it matches the one in mine. Image. Head. (To quickly fix the references, because I do not have a lot of time. I have to be going soon.)

Some of you may have guessed: I'm going to see my parents-in-law. Please don't misconstrue the previous paragraphs; I really like them. They're genuinely nice and lovable folks, and I often enjoy spending an afternoon with them. If only there wasn't such bland and shallow conversation. Or if there simply wasn't such a lot of it.