A small honest statement can interrupt a pattern built from years of polite avoidance.

Long avoidance is rarely built from one big silence. It accumulates from hundreds of small pleasant deflections, each reasonable on its own, until a whole subject becomes unmentionable between people who see each other often. Because it was built in small pieces, it can also be interrupted by one, which is why a single plain sentence can change a room.

Think of the subject you route around with someone. Find the smallest true thing you could say about it and say that, without a preamble or a demand for a response.