Thoughtful Thanksgiving

Well, this weekend, I went back home with the goal of rest. I did achieve that pretty well. Slept 10 hours each day. Since I had no access to a computer, a lot of my time was spent just sitting, resting, sleeping and just thinking. It was rare for me to think so much. It is almost certain that my lack of ambition and forward momentum has been stopped by the computer. It is easier escape than many things. It is hard to stop. But I know it must be stopped sometime.

Anyways, the reunion/turkey party at Kent's was really fun. Just talking with old friends was a great thing. However, just because there were two other new people that Kent invited was interesting. The fact that it was not just us kept it less boring than some other times. It's because our group has become stagnant without constant addition of people and lack of interaction normally.

It did help that the two additions were girls. One was Kent's friend from York who was also his dance partner, Caroline. The other was the Caroline's friend, Mikah (I think that's how you spell it). Mainly I talked to Caroline out of the new people.

Okay, in order to continue, I must explain how I view the world for our age group. Our age group has a certain pecking order or personality based on the people within the groups. Some groups are very 'lawful' or elitist, while other tend to go towards either the conflict culture (popular culture + fighting) or retreatist culture (alternative + drugs). Most of the normal world view the elitist group as the normal population while looking at the conflict culture as jocks and the retreatist culture as losers/druggies/addicts. I am not a supporter of any of these groups because for a person to be locked down to a group, it means the person becomes stagnant. However, I have always been shuffled into the elitist group mainly because I'm a) scared and b) lazy/tired of change. I can only handle so much. Instead, I'd rather act as a bridge between groups, although that's difficult and requires a lot of resources.

That's why I admire people that can become bridges. Kent, for example, is a bridge from the elitist group to the conflict culture. Socially, he is doing much better than most of us. Likewise with Richmond. I however, have become stagnant. I do believe I've become better at normal conversation though, mainly because I realize that most people don't listen anyways. So talking for the purpose of sound is perfectly acceptable.

Anyways, I was talking to Caroline, a bridge between all three. It seems that her group of friends encompasses every group that I have defined above. Mikah, however, I did not find much to talk about mainly because a) I really didn't make an effort b)she did not represent a bridge, but just a part of the retreatist culture. At least Caroline made an effort to keep the conversation going.

Thinking about all of this, hopefully I have grown in some small way.