Rules for Anchorites - In Which I Completely Fumble A Child’s Education

The problem with a lot of Christians when we get an opening to explain what our faith is, we can get all caught up with what's in our heads and what we ought to say (who says?) that we fluff real communication because we forget the gholden rule of 'incarnational' communication. So it's really interesting to see a bunch of the dynamics played out in this little reali-life tale of trying to explain King Arthur to a five-year old when you're an Arthurian expert. See here:
Rules for Anchorites - In Which I Completely Fumble A Child’s Education:

Here's an excerpt:

Serenity: Who’s King Arthur?
And three things happen. I make the shock-grin-gasp thing that I do whenever someone hasn’t heard of a thing I love. Almost simultaneously I remember that she’s five, and it’s not really surprising she doesn’t know who King Arthur is. And then my brain goes OMG I GOT THIS and gets all excited that I am literally the BEST PERSON EVER to explain King Arthur to a little girl for the first time. I wrote a book about it! I AM ON THIS.

But then…it happens. My entire knowledge of Arthuriana lurches forward into the talky part of my brain, every little thing I know about it from childhood obsession to grad school fights to come out first, and I start talking before the kid can get bored again but King Arthur is a huge story and SURPRISINGLY HARD to soundbite for a kindergartner.

Seems to me that the key thing there is that 'entire knowledge... lurches forward into the talky part of my brain' and the felt need simply therefore to splurge. And to do so in terms that have worked for us. In such moments we probably need to do two things. One is to continuew to ask questions in order to get a sense of where the other person is with all of this, and to give answers that provoke or at least leave open the possibility of the other person asking more questions.
"I'm so wowed you asked me that because I love this. But could you help me? You see, my head is so full of things I'd love to share with you that I'm likely to start in the wrong way to help you best to understand. So, tell me: wheret do you think I'd best start? I could tell you about what got me into it or the best things about it or about why I think it's important ..."