The Background for Good Conversation : Page 95

Similar to avocations are hobbies. Almost any hobby makes a person more interesting as a talker. During one financially harried semester in high school, I was a stamp collector. This dip into philatelism, while it made my parents investigate my sudden extravagance, has a thousand times given me conversational bonds with people when no other common ground had yet been reached. It also made me forever capable of understanding and sympathizing with the collector's urge that "afflicts" so large a portion of mankind! A hobby is not essential for good conversation, but in the absence of a weightier interest, it does agreeably undergird it.