RogerEvansOnline.com

Reading this short article led to some soul-searching. Which kind of person was I at dinner last night — and which am I fundamentally? Does being good partners in promiscuous social conversation make us shallow? Does applying the Ignatian principle of suiting the conversation to the company risk making one a unmoored sophisticate? Is it not possible to be fruitfully committed to, say, music and literature while still being able to range freely in the interests of other people? What about the people who say, “Oh, you’re a musician. We must talk about music,” whether we want to talk about music with them or not?