Doctor, your 6 o'clock appointment is here

Whenever you have a conversation with another person, you expect the talking to be two-sided, like a game of give-and-take: one person talks, then the other.

Sometimes, it’s much more difficult, not because one person is hogging the conversation, but because the other person isn’t saying a thing (they’re uncomfortable and/or shy, or conversely, stubborn and/or evasive).

You'd think it would be easy to get inside their head to see what’s going on, but it can be challenging. It’s like a carjacking, where you're jimmying the lock, but don’t realize there’s a silent alarm sending a warning to the police.

And, I hate that awkward (and eerie) moment of silence.

What ends up happening is that I turn into an armchair psychologist and start asking a series of questions to get something out of them: Family life? Siblings? School? Job? Where they live? Anything to get a response.

But, I never ask the "But, how does that make you feel?" sort of question. I'm not Barbra Streisand, they're not Nick Nolte, and this isn't the re-enactment of the rape scene in The Prince of Tides.

It's such a pain in the ass, and I don’t want to give the impression that I’m analyzing them; I'm just trying to figure out why they aren't talking.