HOW-TO Fridays: How to have good DMC's

No Jeremy Wong, it is not "Duck Mating Chicken".

DMC stands for a "Deep and Meaningful Conversation" in Christianese, a highly specialised vocabulary lingo-jingo most commonly found in churches.
DMC's occur when two people (usually it's two, any more and three's a crowd) meet up together, sometimes by happenstance, sometimes purposefully, and chat about how life is going. When you stop commenting on the weather, the sad state of the cricket or the latest episode of Top Gear and start talking about things that may use the words "emotion", "feel", "Spirit", fellowship", "love", "happiness" and/or (and this is a favourite of mine), "I just don't know"- we've hit the DMC stage of things.

DMC's are almost de rigeur in church atmospheres and, not to discount that rarely seen but flourishing creature called the "Male DMC", women tend to have them on a far more regular and public basis. They're great to have in accountability measures, general fellowship arenas, mentoring situations, when someone needs help that isn't physical and a great way to invest into someones life.

For some reason, I find my summer is filled with them and more often than not, there are some keys to having a successful DMC.

Location, Location, Location!
You know what? Anywhere works completely fine. Whether you're in a small cafe with a long macc or a belgian mocha *ahem* or you're in the middle of 10,000 strong crowd raving to some beats- if the company with you wants to talk and you can hear them? It's all good. You can be in the middle of the ocean floating amongst waves, cycling in the bush, driving somewhere, eating at Hawker's at 1am in the morning and a DMC will come from nowhere and slot right in before you know it's there.

What are you doing?
Make sure that the other person has at least 80% of your attention. If you're writing out a new job resume, probably not the best time. Same goes for cutting anything with knives, brain surgery, something to save humanity from a flying asteroid, mining, serving people at a cash register- you get the idea. Multi-tasking is great- but DMC's require more than just your physical presence.

Who are you again?
You have to choose the right people to have DMC's with. Your gardener- no. Your hairdresser on the other hand- quite possibly. I've had good conversations with my hairdressers before (with my amount of hair, it's not hard to see why it'd take a while). Most often, people open up to their closest friends because of the comfort and familiarity. Sometimes though, the first person to take an interest will often bear the weight of a lengthy DMC if it's badly needed. Some people say that you can't have a fully open DMC with a member of the opposite sex but in my eyes that's bollocks. Guys are often great listeners who don't feel the need to butt in and give advice. On the other hand- if the DMC is about how you hate all the men around you and want to become celibate- possibly find a girl to talk to about it.

So yes- DMC is good. DMCs help the world go round. DMC with beer in a pub is not necessarily for a guy either, I'm just saying.