Next week would usually be my week to recharge for the next year. It isn’t enough, but my annual pilgrimage to San Diego always seems to help. I live a mostly lonely life here at home, especially since disconnecting from social media, and those few days in San Diego are usually some of the best that I have any given year. It offers a respite from the cold and warms the soul with conversation and sharing space with people with whom I have formed a kinship.
It didn’t start out that way, of course. It began with me reading a website, joining a small online forum, and becoming caught up in ideas, thinking, and learning. From those experiences online, friendships developed virtually, then “in real life” with handshakes, hugs, and laughs (both drunken and sober). We found each other because we shared a single obsessive interest; we became friends because we learned that we shared so much more.
As I have removed myself from that community, with its mooring now primarily in a global online-/social media-space, I recognize that I need more engagement. More interaction. More commonality. More stimulation. More something … I think.
This Wednesday, I will participate in a meeting of the Syracuse Camera Club. Although I am not optimistic, I recognize that, perhaps, there might be something there for me. Probably not. But I am going in with an open mind with the thought that maybe, just maybe, there might be some folks who share yet another obsessive interest with me who can help offer a welcome distraction from an otherwise isolated social existence. You never know, I might even make a friend one day.
Probably not.