Old Friends

My FB notifications left unread now reach past 100 as I get to the midpoint of my third week off the social media platforms.  The company really wants me to sign on, keeping their site as exclusive as they can.  To do this, they entice me with emails of who else has posted.  None of those emails notify me of a product they think I ought to know about, a home team to which I am loyal, or a political position that I share.  No.  Those hundred messages are all from Old Friends.  People from high school to whom FB has enabled me to reconnect.  I like the people.  I appreciate the platform despite the many valid reasons to let it lay fallow for a few weeks.  It is where I find Old Friends.

That leaves me with other places to connect with Old Friends.  Live places mostly, but some personal email too.  Live is better.  The limitation of live is the relative paucity of people and places to meet them.  OLLI has tapered off since the semester began.  Fewer people hang out in the central gathering area.  I no longer have a day that keeps me there beyond my one scheduled class.  People have been arriving closer to the announced starting time.  It would be interesting to ask the staff whether they use fewer K-cups at their complimentary Keurig machines.  I do not see a lot of people there.  Those at tables keep to themselves.  And the first half session has concluded, so people in those classes, two for me, are on site less.  

My other gathering place is shabbos morning.  There I always have old friends to approach or approach me at the conclusion of services.  The experience of the worship, sometimes engaging, sometimes not, poses something of a barrier if the purpose of attendance is camaraderie.  There are handshakes and greetings during services.  While sincere, they are also formalities, pretty much devoid of any language interchange that connects people.

I have no recreational buddies, one old friend who I can expect to man the deli counter at Shop-Rite if I go there early enough, something not often compatible with my OLLI obligations.  I don't belong to any clubs.  The senior physicians' program disappeared when its champion withdrew.  

But my wife remains steadfastly my dearest, most dependable friend.  As she should be.