There was an awkward moment at supper the other night.
Supper at the retirement community is a highly social affair, unlike lunch.
The residents who come to supper come to see and be seen, and to make conversation.
As the newest resident, I was invited to sit at a table for eight -- there were only seven of us actually.
The other residents all knew each other and were comfortable conversing together.

The talk turned to the No Kings protests, with the table wholly in favor of them.
But the resident next to me misinterpreted my silence.
I'm not the talkative kind, in spite of how much I write or post,
and I had not said anything while they were talking about the protests.
And this one resident judges people by how cleverly they talk.
So she turned to me to offer her commiserations over the fact that I had obviously voted for Trump, and I stopped her with,
"I did NOT vote for Trump."
In fact that exchange shut down the whole table for a minute or so.

This woman is a talker, plainly, and earlier in the evening she had observed that a man she knew was actually very smart,
but when she first met him she didn't think much of his intelligence.
I"m reading things into this, but I take it to mean that
the man also kept silence when she expected him to dance verbally with her,
and she misinterpreted his silence as she did mine.
I really mistrust people who live to talk.

Anyway, the others at the table gave no offense in any way,
and they were very kind to me, in spite of my silence.
So overall it was not a bad experience, just awkward for a minute.