Maybe it’s just a function of the age of one’s contemporaries as one grows older, but has anyone noticed that, whereas 20 years ago if you really “clicked” with someone you just met, and it was obvious that you shared philosophy and could accomplish things and have great times together, that both would actually take the initiative to make sure they spent some time together? Even for a coffee, or to go shooting, or to get the wives together?

I can’t count the number of cool people I’ve met in the last five years in my line of work that are totally pursuing the same things as my wife and I are in life, who are so blind to the need to step out and actually build community with people they meet who are on the same page. So many awesome and stimulating initial conversations, even volunteering contact info and both remarking that we “should get together and shoot the shit sometime” around a fire. Then never to speak again.

It seems we truly have been separated and isolated in modern life.

If I run into someone who I can see myself or my family cooperating with in the times ahead, I always extend an invitation to get together, even for something relatively non-committal.

When my wife and I moved to this town exactly 15 years ago, we started going to the community church to worship and to meet like-minded people. After six months of small talk on Sundays, no one even so much as asked us over for lunch or coffee. It was weird, in my mind.

It’s amazing how many people one has to meet to find those few gems that you can fight and die next to, have fun with, get to truly know, and who recognize the power of community.
#grownostr