And as I sat and listened to a thousand conversations, each more trivial than the next, I thought to myself, "How can I turn this into a disadvantage?"

And so I stood and walked over to a couple men trading quips they had heard on television, and I told them that all their life was a ruin that was waiting to be discovered by someone more interested in what has happened than what's happening.

This resulted in two very perplexed faces staring at me.  And so I proposed, "What's happening?"

"Well, we are sitting together today, because today is the the day we always sit together, and we are talking about all the wonderful things that were said on television this past week."  They said.

In response, I presented a small knife from my pocket.  "This is the words you babble, and this is the snake that nips at your heels."  I then made a small incision on my forearm, from which the red wines of life began to flow.

"You are talking, and I am bleeding.  That is what's happening."

And I left them there to bear the feelings of loss and regret alone.