Last week, I had the good fortune to hear Anna Quindlen speak. This is the 2nd time she’s come to Kansas City to promote one of her books, and both times I went to see her.
Ms. Quindlen is the dream friend. She is smart, funny, loyal, and an unwavering supporter of women. She gets how women think and casually drops pearls of wisdom in nearly every sentence.
It has been my good fortune to have friends like Anna. Women who can discuss Hillary Clinton or Kate Middleton in one breath, give a movie review and name five places to go for drinks after, who have strong opinions on politics and current events, and who make it their business to stay informed about things that matter.
And then there’s the other kind.
I recently had to spend a few hours working with that kind of woman. Why must they talk incessantly? It was constant………the chatter about nothing. The subject of private vs. public schools came up and she asked the two of us who have kids in the public school system about a high school close by. She heard there was a lot of problems with fights. No, never heard that. Are you sure, she asked. Yes.
Well, she said, I’ve heard that school has a lot of “transitional” people. Transitional people? You know, renters. The low income type.
I don’t think there is a single community or school system that is immune from the economic hardships that have been going on these last few years, but the more immediate problem wasn’t the renter types in a public school she knew nothing about.
It was that she never stopped talking long enough to pay attention to a single thing.