Interestingly, I didn’t get to this post about Social Awkwardness until today…because I was too busy:
- Getting Out There
- Talking and Listening and
- Taking Time (gasp) to get to know people!
Of course it started out as an assignment from good friend and counsel, but since I was already all dressed up with nowhere to go, I had one foot out the door.
It’s quite a miraculous thing to go on a hike or walk these days, and quite a few people are noticing the magic of simple encounters with another human being. With mask or without, it doesn’t seem to matter to folks who are more focused on regaining connections.
There was the earnest Gen Z-er who made the distinction for me that her peers were interested in changing the world unlike Millennials more interested in posting pictures of avocado toast. Her throw-down, not mine.
Then the forensics accountant who worked for Customs, a G-girl with a wry sense of humor and deeper soulful side.
And Sherree Patrice, wearing the most fabulous Elton John-esque specs and Minding Her Own Mission mask.
The very kindred spirit who had spent much of her life raising two young adult girls, dis-entangling from a Force of Nature mom, and learning to live with a fearfulness that really wasn’t hers but her husband’s.
And then the Iranian gentleman who responded two years ago to the oncologists’ dire predictions with “I’m not dead yet.” He keeps walking instead of waiting.
The pool of people willing to risk a get-together was growing! So Movie Night it was, with:
- an “old-fashioned” British bloke I dare not pigeonhole with description;
- a hairdresser who has discovered and loves the 11% British-ness among her African roots;
- a ginger girl who self-identifies “bi” and is happily expecting Baby with new boyfriend from Romania via Australia;
- an intuitive coach born and raised in Cape Town whose home may actually be in a galaxy far, far away; and
- a German woman passionate about motorcycles, scuba diving, cats, and good “sex and snuggling.”
That we watched Car Wash, that early Seventies’ Blaxploitation film, before finishing the night with talk of other realms, Oneness and “individuated oneness blobs”…may say it all, or that I just have to leave it there… or here.
Fighting for Happiness 