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SOCIAL STUDY in party mode
Monday Feb. 8, 2016
Commodity. Short supply. Maybe it’s just me. I don’t get enough. I watch comedy channel reruns (also, political debates), which help, but I’m too serious, too focused on work. Need more levity. Where should I look? Not hiding under furniture or in closets. Nor do I hide from it. I opt for solitude too often. I got a chance to laugh yesterday. A Super Bowl party. I know the hosts. The rest, strangers. But I remember some names. For a few hours we greeted, grazed and gabbled together – hosts were spokes of that wheel, ‘the big game’ was our hub. We may not have done anything for the world. For a few hours we laughed. I laughed. I enjoyed warm company, feasting and laughter. Mostly, watching old friends in action. A fly on their wall. Permitted to watch that social gathering of primates, males mostly in that room with the big screen, females mostly in the kitchen. Subjects mingled, laughing lots – kibitzing about who is, or is not, addicted to a certain reality show. Then I realized, I was in one. Smiled all the way home. Still warm. There are few things that feel as good, that tug as hard, as outstretched arms of friendship. What do I learn, what do I ‘now know’ at some deeper level because of this experience? Not something new, but something too long underappreciated. We learn more from others, learn better in groups and collaborations. Alone is convenient. I rarely disagree with me. Don’t have to share air or space or airtime or … get to. Isolated, alone is sometimes very happy, but never laughter filled.
Mark Kolke
P.S.: happy new year – gung hay fat choy – to everyone celebrating the year of the monkey!
written / published from Calgary, AB
morning walk: 7C/45F, some Chinook clouds, a band of light on the horizon, a few very nice warm days predicted; our path is neither grassy or bare – but an icy freeze-thaw formed mess of rutted footprints and winter melting daily; Gusta managed traction, I did not, but we carried on enjoying the approach of bare-head weather …
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