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flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2023-11-17 11:09 pm
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With all these articles about how living alone is like smoking two packs a day as a way of decreasing your life span, I think I may start keeping a record of who I talk to day by day, rather as I track my steps. Of course virtually none of my conversations count (according to the articles) because they aren't deep enough or intimate enough- are generalized social chitchat. But like, even when my bro and s-i-l were next door, our conversations weren't deep and intimate, largely because my s-i-l has a ph.d in philosophy and a philosopher's notions of what serious conversation is  ie following rules I never learned about topics I never studied. Or winning debates, whichever. Which was fine: I was quite happy to hear her and my bro talk about case law that required no input from me. 

And certainly I had no serious convos with my coworkers. If there are kids around, one must focus on the kids.

But anyway, I have adopted the theory that, just as extroverts are energized by social chitchat with warm bodies-- any warm body, she says sourly-- so I too can be vitalized by the same. I breathe in their life essence and that replenishes mine. And if that doesn't work, I can try emulating Buddhist ascetics meditating on emptiness. Which apparently leads to a heightened state of happiness if you do it long enough.