Relationship Report? Or Rapport?

When you talk to your friends have you ever noticed if it seems to be more ‘report’ than ‘rapport’? The conversation isn’t about much other than each person just regurgitating the daily events and  occurrences in his or her life. ‘I’m not dating so and so; and it’s fine. Work is the usual. The lawn needs mowed again. How about you? What is going on in your little world?’ And then the other person just does the same but maybe a little more excitement. Maybe. ‘Life is good. Bob has a job so I can’t complain. Janie is almost through her first semester at UT  and Syracuse is in the Final 4. Not much else really; just waiting to see what comes next.’

Is this really what life is? A bunch of reports to people? Seriously? Unfortunately; yep.

I thought about this in my own life and felt saddened that that is what it seems to be. Everyone just gives updates and then goes back home to find more things to update life about. Is that where twitter came from or are we just bringing twitter into our personal relationships without a realizing it?

If this is  a trend we are following as a society then what should we expect? The ability to interact with people and truly get to know them is dying; and quickly. If we don’t get beyond the reporting to asking people ‘how are you today’ and actual mean it then we are headed for more trouble than we can imagine.  The divorce rate is already at an all time high and maybe, just maybe it’s because people care more about the report compared to the rapport.

Who today can you talk to? I mean really engage in conversation with and not just the stupid stuff that is irrelevant to who that person is at a core. How about your wife? How is she really doing? How is your husband beyond the ‘fine’ you may hear at the end of the day? How are your friends? Single friends- what is really going on with them? Do you even know or is it just covered up with the facade of new spring color trends?

I challenge you to get beyond accepting the outer and dig deeper. You will be surely surprised to what you may find.