Fragments

I think that life happens in fragments.  Why not writing?  We may want structure and clear rules to attempt to have our life make sense.  The rules of grammar may govern some portions of our stories.

 

But. 

There is beauty in a fragment.  There is a story told in the pauses.  In the half-completed chase.  In the decisions that didn’t make practical sense.

Perhaps spellchecker highlighting in green is a compliment.  What a positive color, right?

So let’s string all of our untidy fragments together and have a real run-on sentence of a life, shall we?

Bafflement of the Sexes

I think that it is great that men and women don’t understand each other.  Wouldn’t it just be boring, otherwise?

Tonight, I’m challenged to think of my sex’s weakness to communicate with each other.  Our inability to openly share our struggles.  Our reluctance to lean on each other for support in hard times.  And it’s a real problem.

In general, women seem to understand this much better than men.  I think guys ask themselves a couple of questions fairly often.  Why I am I so lonely?  Why do I feel that I can only hope for intimacy in a relationship with my girlfriend or wife?

So do we accept the culture?

Or change it?

I say we give it our best shot.

How We Make New Friends

I think that there are a few popular ways to do this.  My way for a while has been to immediately act as if a friendship is already in place.  Do I know someone that you know or do we have a similar interest?  Well, then.  Let’s act as if we’ve been friends for ages.

I’m not sure this is always very effective.

A friend of mine showed me a different way tonight, a way that I think is better.  And here it is.

Don’t fake connection.  Share a personal story, open up about yourself, and then let the other person make the next move.  Don’t force friendship down someone else’s throat.

A lot of people aren’t as friendly as me or as comfortable in strange situations.  They aren’t ready to warm to someone they don’t know well, and probably rightly so.  Gullibility can result in getting taken advantage of.

Maybe there are all kinds of ways to make new friends, and a right approach with certain kinds.  But I think that I need to be careful in the future.  Careful not to let my good intentions get the best of me.