You don't have to sell me on the value of friendship---I feel the lack of friends keenly every day. At work I had many friendly acquaintances and two closer friends. Then I took an early retirement and made consistent efforts to maintain and maybe enlarge those friendships, but Covid hit and that stopped everything. Covid also killed the two close friendships that I had; they became rigid intolerant people who would not brook the slightest disagreement with me even though they are nominally not "woke." I guess you could say that they reflexively identify with what is being called "liberal" these days (I'm liberal too but really liberal, not Left). Anyway they dumped me for Wrong-Think, something I would never do to them.
It's very hard to make friends as an adult, especially because 1) I live in Philadelphia so there's the constant intrusion of progressive insanity 2) I am a good friend but not blessed with those extraversion skills that enable some folks to inspire and organize get-togethers, and 3) I'm a woman who is gets along better with men than women; I never really cracked the Girl-Code. There are a lot of natural barriers to fostering a male/female relationship.
The greatest blessing of my life has been my marriage to the most wonderful man; he is my best friend and always has been. But he's not in need of friends, he's happy to pursue his hobbies and hang out with me. I realize though that I need more social interaction than that and really really really miss not having at least casual friends in my life. Might be easier if I lived in a more conservative area.
It's the social networks - nothing else. And honestly, I am tired of this, I like what I like and if there is a group of people which life is only consistent of bitching about others, then I am happy to not participate in this any more. Is it really so hard to write or say - "Hi" or "How are you"?
I did that yesterday at swimming pool, when one kid was next to me in locker room and he looked so surprised, that nobody done that in years. I feel now more like in some asylum, where people are mentally broken.
You don't have to sell me on the value of friendship---I feel the lack of friends keenly every day. At work I had many friendly acquaintances and two closer friends. Then I took an early retirement and made consistent efforts to maintain and maybe enlarge those friendships, but Covid hit and that stopped everything. Covid also killed the two close friendships that I had; they became rigid intolerant people who would not brook the slightest disagreement with me even though they are nominally not "woke." I guess you could say that they reflexively identify with what is being called "liberal" these days (I'm liberal too but really liberal, not Left). Anyway they dumped me for Wrong-Think, something I would never do to them.
It's very hard to make friends as an adult, especially because 1) I live in Philadelphia so there's the constant intrusion of progressive insanity 2) I am a good friend but not blessed with those extraversion skills that enable some folks to inspire and organize get-togethers, and 3) I'm a woman who is gets along better with men than women; I never really cracked the Girl-Code. There are a lot of natural barriers to fostering a male/female relationship.
The greatest blessing of my life has been my marriage to the most wonderful man; he is my best friend and always has been. But he's not in need of friends, he's happy to pursue his hobbies and hang out with me. I realize though that I need more social interaction than that and really really really miss not having at least casual friends in my life. Might be easier if I lived in a more conservative area.
It's the social networks - nothing else. And honestly, I am tired of this, I like what I like and if there is a group of people which life is only consistent of bitching about others, then I am happy to not participate in this any more. Is it really so hard to write or say - "Hi" or "How are you"?
I did that yesterday at swimming pool, when one kid was next to me in locker room and he looked so surprised, that nobody done that in years. I feel now more like in some asylum, where people are mentally broken.