January 19, 2018: Del Rio News-Herald * Community Pride - An in focus page dedicated to local giving * Meditation Corner * Conversational Café
Community Pride Page Column
Conversational Café
After a hectic work day, Verdad Cuento
has an appointment to finally check out what the latest rage is all about.
Everyone’s talking about it and she wants to see for herself. She’s come to the
Riverville Conversational Café located in the historic downtown section of
town, the heart and soul of Riverville. The Riverville Conversational Café
is proud to be part of the preservation and promotion of the downtown
district.
“Welcome to your friendly neighborhood
‘conversational café’’, an attractive, athletic young man greets Verdad at the
front entrance and presents her with a small gray metal box with a touch ID pad
on top, that only her thumb print will be able to unlock once it is closed. She
is instructed to deposit her device. She reluctantly complies because she
misses being without her device and in constant contact with her countless
companions.
This is a “device-free conversational café”
where people are seated around a table with a “conversational starter”, an
extremely outgoing, gregarious and interesting young lady who loves to ask
questions, is genuinely curious about anything and everything. All the people
are invited to share about themselves in face to face conversations. The
Riverville Conversational Café is packed; the atmosphere is filled with jovial
laughter and boisterous conversations.
Verdad is animatingly engaged in
speaking with all those at her table, when she is interrupted.
“Excuse me, your time is up. Your
purchased time has unfortunately expired. If you would like we can make an
appointment for an hour and a half or maybe two hours. I would be glad to set
that up for you,” informs the “conversational scheduler”.
“I’d love a two hour time slot,” eagerly
states Verdad.
“Yes, of course, I’ll take care of that
right away,” courteously responds the “conversational scheduler”.
As Verdad exits the Riverville Conversational
Café, a small gray metal box is placed in front of her.
“Please place your thumb on the ID pad,
so you can get your device,” motions the “conversational greeter”.
“Oh, I forgot all about it. I was having
so much fun speaking to and listening to real live human beings and sharing face
to face with them. I really like this place. I’m definitely going to tell all
my Gazehook “friends”. It was so much fun.”
As soon as she leaves she checks her
device and there are a hundred messages. She realizes she forgot to let her
“friends” know she would be at a “device-free conversational café” so they
wouldn’t worry that something happened to her because she wasn’t returning
their messages. So she quickly dashes off a message informing everyone about
where she had been.
Marian
Casillas, Ed.D.