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1.11 - Social

In her essay "Feel me. See me. Hear me. Reach me." Roxane Gay writes, "I don't know that there is someone in world with whom I have a lot in common, especially not in the ways that would make sense on the kinds of websites where you enter some key characteristics and preferences and might somehow meet your match. I haven't even tried, which I do not see as a bad thing. I love being with someone who is endlessly interesting because we are so different. Wanting to belong to people or a person is not about finding a mirror image of myself."

When I read that, I felt like I could have written it. I love being with someone who is endlessly interesting because we are so different. One of my first jobs was at a yarn store, where the owners and almost all of the customers had kids and grandkids my age. I relished sharing a table with them and listening to their stories. When I spent a summer working in New York City, my coworkers, roommate, and church all took pity on the little country mouse and ensured that I had a varied and delightful experience. My life is the richer for those I have known - well or briefly - who were very different from me. 

My advances may not always be well received - after all, the interest in not-like-me has to go both ways - and I've also met plenty of people who inaccurately viewed our differences as an invitation for them to make me more like they were (since interest must equal desire to imitate, in their minds) but I'm secure in who I am and although I've learned many things from others, I refuse to betray myself.

June brings summer and birthdays and, in these pandemic times, outdoors meet ups - all things that delight my glitter-covered extroverted heart. So this month, let's get social!

[You're invited to join the conversation on Facebook,
or follow along daily on Instagram]
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