I've read a great deal of online writing about the impact of the pandemic and the preventative measures undertaken to thwart it have had on social intercourse. Quite frankly I don't get it; any of it.
I had someone tell me not that long ago that they hadn't had a hug in over a year. My first impulse was to quickly (a little too quickly admittedly) step back just in case there was any sort of expectation that I would deliver one. Hard nope on that.
I am a fan of humanity in the abstract I'm just not really a fan of specifics. I've never been a big handshaker (more of a pepper shaker to be honest) and aside from my spouse and two children and my own brothers and sisters, I'm not a huger or a mugger. I'm more of a shrugger.
I have more 'friends' online than in the real world and have been grateful for the last decade or so that social media exists because it gives me someplace to be and a forum to be in. I didn't have friends from work that I saw outside of work because I didn't have any at work.
For the most part and true for close to five decades, the people at work tolerated me and I reciprocated. They paid me and I worked for them. Good enough for both of us and, to be honest, much fairer than I deserved.
I'd never heard of Dunbar's Number until I read this and now all I can say is the only Dunbar I know is a friend of Captain Yossarian from Catch-22. Yossarian is actually one of my heroes and I'd say 'real-life heroes' except he's a figment of Joseph Heller's imagination.
As for friends, your mileage may vary (when does it not?) but if you're unhappy in your skin with your own company what makes you think you'll do better with strangers who are, strictly speaking, friends you've not yet met.
-bill kenny
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