Why

This is something I've actually noticed for a while, but I think it'd be interesting to share.

Why do we ask people questions? I mean, like, in social instances--interrogation doesn't count. Perhaps my conclusion isn't correct, though it is logical, but I've come to believe that we ask people questions (most of the time) so that we can then give our opinion. For example:

A: What's your favourite Star Wars book?
B: I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
A: Well, my favourite book is Star by Star by Troy Denning because.....

And so it goes on. I've thought about a number of scenarios, and in all of them, the most probable thing for someone to say is their own opinion. Which makes sense, I suppose. If you initiate a topic, it'd be pointless for it to be one about which you have nothing to say. However, I think it also portrays something else--our self-centered natures. I think that most people, save for a few amazing exceptions, are naturally self-centered, even if it's mostly suppressed. For instance, I wouldn't consider myself to be a braggart, and I would consider myself to have a lot of concern for others, yet I do tend to say a lot of sentences with "Me" or "I" instead of "You" or "He" or "She". Especially on the internet, I come across as more boastful than in real life.

As I said, I can't think of very many scenarios where someone's natural response would not be about themself. I find that very interesting.

And that whole little section was a prime example of my point.

Tuesday was a very interesting day. I had been thinking that afternoon about just how different I am, even compared to my own family members, who are by far the most similar to me of anybody I've ever met. Yet I stand out. I am an oddball, through and through. I am always the one who takes on everyone else in a debate, holding to the least favoured opinion. I am generally considered weird for my reading habits and taste, for the movies I enjoy, for the music I enjoy, for the sports I enjoy, etc. There are some people who are like me in one thing of the other, yet they think me weird for enjoying the others.

So I was thinking about that, and wondering why in the world it was that way, especially considering the fact that everyone else seems a lot more similar to each other than I am to them, when I found something out.

I'd known for a while that a new family was moving in downstairs, an American family who'd lived in Serbia for a while, and that they had two kids. What I didn't know, and what I found out, was that both the dad and the thirteen year-old son both are fans of The Lord of the Rings. And not really of the movies. Of the books. Not only that, Daniel (the son) has read LotR over 20 times, which means there's someone else around who's read it a lot. He's three years younger than me but he's read it only five times less. w00t for him.

I find that really cool. Someone who likes LotR a lot. Who's a major fan of it. And who's not someone I know only on the internet (no offense, guys!). Anyway, that makes me happy. Now I've got to find out what his taste in music and movies is. :P