Listening is easy, in principle. In practice it can be terribly hard – especially when, like Karen, you have so much to lose. A really good conversation is mentally demanding. Listening and responding is messy, exhausting – and exhilarating. A great conversation is a rare joy because it is full of surprises and thus requires constant improvisation. As the philosopher Gilbert Ryle wrote, ‘To a partly novel situation the response is necessarily partly novel, else it is not a response.’
