I just met a house-full of my daughter and her husband's friends. What a pleasure. Each one interesting and friendly even to their friends "parents" who were, for some reason, at a party for thirty somethings (well, we DID have a valid reason for being there - our grandson's first birthday). It was fun to see the way they stimulate one another and get into deeper-than-normal discussions and debates. That's what young people do (although one fellow showed some signs of aging when he said he and my son-in-law met for coffee recently and talked about nothing but kids for two hours) and it reminded me that we all ought to, from time to time, refrain from discussing the weather and aches and pains and who did what and discuss issues and ideas and religion and politics.
I once heard someone say that shallow minds talk about people, normal minds talk about things and great minds talk about ideas. I don't know that that is true - even a little bit - but I've always remembered it - especially when I find myself talking about others.
So next time you get together with friends talk about ideas - what happened in the world this week - what new discovery science has come up with - how Jesus' "do unto others" fits into our world today - the plight of the poor and downtrodden of the world - what you'd do if you were a policy maker to overcome the economic woes or the unemployment problems of our country.... or any number of other issues.
Talk - stimulate one another - challenge - enjoy - feel young and "intellectual" again. An idea is a terrible thing to waste.
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