Concertina Conversations

Ever played the piano accordion?

In order of frequency, I am imagining most people reading this will be saying

• No, never - they seem weird

• Once at my grandma's house when Uncle Kevin took it up for five minutes

• Heaps, and I am really good at it

But ONE THING we all get is that air is moved around in the foldy-up bits that expand and contract to help make the sound.

Conversations can be like that. They expand to take in more and more ideas and information - divergent. Or they focus on making choices and decisions - convergent.

And if you ever did have a go on Uncle Kevin's piano accordion when you were five, and it all got a bit heavy, you probably let it keep expanding until it flopped open all the way to the floor as it made a pitiful whiney sound that just petered out. That's what happens when you keep adding more and more ideas and information to a discussion.

Or maybe it was all too much, and your fear of looking foolish or your general lack of interest meant you simply pushed it together with your tiny bird arms and locked the little strap. But if you never open it up, you just get nothing.

Moving between the convergent and the divergent - like a piano accordion - makes conversations sing.

Note: No piano accordions were harmed in the deep investigative research done for this post.

#doonethingdeep #accordianlife #conversations