I've been accused of it. I forgot all about it, though, until I was at friends' for dinner the other night. My hostess was talking while she was cutting up veggies or salad ingredients and she was waving the knife all around. I didn't hear a word she said. See, as someone who's very accident-prone, I was terrified that she'd slice her jugular open at any moment. She didn't.
That reminded me of other women who do that. My friend Angela, for one. We're close enough that I can ask her to step away from the knife. And then I remembered that FF's mom does that. Maybe that's why the talking with hands thing is a distraction for him. I'd never talk with a knife in my hands. For one thing, I can't multitask. Not even a little bit.
And then, I realized there's a pattern. All three of these women are strong, intelligent, independent, and passionate about life. And they're women. Could that be part of it? I have a feeling there's a neurological component. I'll have to start noticing.
I'll have to close with this quote from Rachael Ray: I cut myself a lot--but not when I'm chopping. It usually happens when I'm holding a knife and talking with my hands!
Talking with hands or wildly gesticulating while rattling on is a lot like snoring: it's distracting to others, but one hardly, if at all, notices oneself doing it.
ReplyDelete