Life, the Universe and Everything
While catching up on the various thoughts of those I follow on Facebook, LiveJournal, Wordpress, Posterous and Tumblr early this morning (yes, I am mad), I chanced upon a really interesting post on Tumblr.
The basic premise; that as you get older, not only do you have fewer friends, but that this is both natural and advantageous in many ways. As we mature past adolescence we gain the tools to engineer our own social interactions, and much of our energy is drawn into cultivating a social circle. As our lives become increasingly busy (be that with family, work, or both), the time or energy we are willing to expend on maintaining those relationships is reduced. The circle gets smaller.
The other really interesting point the post raises is that sometimes those that we thought of as close will drift away. This too is completely normal. Think about it - how much do your friends really know about your life - the stresses, the strains, the backstory. We all have a lot more going on than we share, and inevitably the "other" part of our life becomes the primary part.
I can certainly draw a lot of parallels. At various times during my life - and many others I suspect - I have felt much like some kind of ship; passing through the lives of others. Some change direction and accompany each other for a time, others are fleeting and yet the interactions have been valued just as much.
Sometimes - as happened this week - friends pass away and we become more aware of the fragility of the time we have. We become more aware of the time and effort we expend on any number of things, and their value to us as part of a bigger picture.
The phrase "Carpé Diem" comes to mind. Seize the day.
