People who need people

On Friday morning I determined to spend the weekend in productive activity, shunning human company and comfort in order to spend more time with the liberal arts. Although I had delivered my Tevye the Dairyman/Fiddler on the Roof presentation the night before (with satisfactory success), I knew that the next three weeks held the deadlines of at least four more substantial projects.

My resolve lasted two hours.

I do not recall what happened to the time between my nap (which ended at 6:30 or so) and Bible study (which began at 10:30). I do remember a brief mental struggle over whether or not I should attend the study; this was resolved quickly, however, in favor of attendance. After Bible study I made a split-second decision to watch Big Fish with Barbour, Fleetman, Melby, Paige, and Smee, mainly because I had not been able to spend much time with that section of the human community in several weeks. That ruled out any productive activity on Friday.

On Saturday I slept until 3:45 in the afternoon. That left enough time before supper to shower. After supper, I attended Wait Until Dark at Longview Community Theater (this, of course, had been in my plans for the past two weeks ), and after this went out to eat with my friends. So passed Saturday.

Today involved sleeping later than I had planned, then going to Wal-Mart for a lot of groceries (I have a hunch the Mountain Dew will prove its utility before the end of the week). After that, I pretended to do a little research on the Council of Chalcedon, but I spent most of my time cleaning up for the sake of the friends who would be over for supper. The evening meal itself lasted quite some time (and proved most satisfactory). Then the group began to watch The Sound of Music in the living room -- although I did a reasonably good job of ignoring it, finally figuring out the positions of Eutyches, Theodoret, and Dioscorus while everybody talked or sang over the film. Ironically, I accomplished much less once the movie ended, because the conversation became interesting as the number of participants became manageable.

I am still trying to figure out how to approach the question of socialization. I know that I enjoy life much more (and others enjoy my presence more) when I spend an adequate amount of time alone. Solitude allows perspective and cures mindless chatter. On the other hand, I hate falling "out of the loop," and I do not want to seem unhospitable.

In two years, contact with this group of friends will be rare. I will have the opportunity to reinvent myself; I will seek out a new social network in a new academic setting. At the moment, I cannot decide how to react to this idea.