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The Background for Good Conversation - part 2
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Surely this parable should mean that since the Lord has given us mind and memory, which are the warehouses of conversation, He expects us to employ them to their full capacity. True, in his unfathomable wisdom, He has ordained that some have few talents, many average, and only a few superior ones. This means that not all people, no matter how nobly they try, can become especially brilliant conversationalists, any more than they can become great poets or grand architects. But within their talent range, they must do the best they can — and that is enough to get them to heaven — and to be charming and agreeable among men.
"Knowledge is a form of life," says St. Thomas Aquinas; "it is a process of becoming, of becoming alive." An interesting talker must be alive, he must know things. The difference between a conversationalist and a chatterer is that the one has something to say — he talks facts, sentiments, ideas, whereas the chatterer thinks he has to say something — he talks mere words. The conversationalist is interesting because one always gets something from him, either new facts or ideas, or a deeper appreciation of old ones. Good conversation satisfies the deep, eternal, but little recognized thirst for knowledge in man. .The Parable of the Talents requires this search for "more light." The writer, the teacher, the good conversationalist are all part of the vast campaign to inform the human race and bring it nearer to divine Truth. All further "the end of learning," which John Milton writes, "is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright" (Tractate on Education). It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the most essential ingredient of good talking is the contribution of some new or worthwhile information or insight. If some persons seem to be interesting conversationalists but yet seem to contribute no noticeable information, it is because, like the personal essayist, they contribute what is much better than facts, namely, a deeper wisdom and understanding. They subtly ennoble attitudes and deepen appreciation. A close analysis probably would reveal that much knowledge, wide reading, and deep reflection lie behind their interesting but seemingly light observations. It is important not to think of knowledge as confined to things learned from school or from books. The most interesting writer in the world, Shakespeare, had very little formal schooling and quoted few books. But he seemed to know every bird and flower in England. A researcher found that in his plays he referred to 62 different kinds of birds more than 600 times. He understood hunting, hawking, and angling; he knew the ways of bishops, lawyers, and soldiers; and he knew the feelings of children, and the feelings of their fathers and mothers. He used all this knowledge gained from everywhere and nowhere, sometimes directly, more often indirectly, in innumerable strange and beautiful comparisons. For example, he used his knowledge of the sea for 200 images illustrating all sorts of things. A scholar, G. B. Harrison, asks, How did Shakespeare come by the incident of the ship boy sleeping in the crow's nest during the storm? It can only have been in one of three ways. He read of it, or he heard of it, or he saw it (Shakespeare, Harcourt, Brace and Co., p. 5).
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