the art of conversation

I am of an age when, with friends, our conversation often focuses on our ills and/or our grandchildren.  Nothing wrong with that,  I'm as guilty as anyone. Those are the things we have in common.  However, this evening was different.  Friends of a friend whom I had met once before invited us to dinner which was very good indeed. She was an art teacher and he's an engineer so they are people with whom I have a lot in common. During the course of the evening we four sat at the table and enjoyed a wide ranging conversation.  We touched on home remodeling, art, theater, travel, ancestors, birds and animals in our back yards, politics, teaching, grandchildren and more but I realized as I was driving away that no one mentioned a single health complaint all evening. That's probably a new record.