Dear John-Paul Flintoff, have you ever been part of any really great conversations?
JP, I'm glad you ask me that. Because the answer is: yes. I can't say that they were always easy. In fact when you ask me that question the first one that comes to mind is a conversation that I feared enormously beforehand. And it felt incredibly difficult all the way through. But afterwards I felt a huge weight off my shoulders that I'd been carrying for years. Really, I felt free.
Oh, do say more!
Not here, not now.
Can you tell us about any other memorable or important conversations?
Yes I can as a matter of fact. Lots of them. And each one felt as if it changed pretty well everything, for me. It amuses me that, in several cases, the other person had forgotten our conversation almost immediately afterwards – because it didn't have anything like the same effect on them. (Pause) Mind you, it's not always like that. The other person in the conversation that I so tantalisingly mentioned already certainly remembers it.
Ooh I'm on tenterhooks.
Yes but I'm not telling you.
Wouldn't it be amazing, John-Paul, if you found some mechanism for sharing powerful stories about conversations that real people have had, so that they could remember and describe them in detail, and other people could learn from them.
JP, I think I may have found it. And if it works as I hope, it will be very amazing indeed.
John-Paul, can we help?
You can! Just leave a comment below, indicating that you can think of a really important conversation in your life. Don't tell me what it was, or what was said – not yet, not here.
Just let me know that you might be interested in sharing it, if I have found the right mechanism.