Fighting Collective Insanity

In the past year, the cost of my multiple “life reboots” has hit really hard. Even a single change in work, change in city, or change in faith community costs friends and acquaintances. In many ways, my social network never recovered after my first “hard reset,” and the handful of soft reboots since haven’t helped the situation. Nor has the increasingly polarized political climate. I’ve found politics in general a cancerous subject that erodes friendships and minds.

Fin has been encouraging my search for groups outside the electronic world. I’ve been lucky enough to find a new family, but new friends have been hard to come by. Growing up in an insular community makes new connections tough, and I never really formed a healthy social network after leaving mine. I’ve intentionally avoided trying to use my professional life for connections, as my experience is these do not “stick” as one’s career shifts.

Let’s start with the big miss. Prior to COVID MeetUp.com helped me connect with a couple really cool hobby groups. Struggling with health issues and moving away from the city distanced me from these groups. Then COVID. Meetup is a shell of its former self, largely hawking Zoom courses. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be much movement in other social media encouraging people to meet in person.

I’ve not found many group hobby group meetings happening in person, and even fewer locally. I recently connected with a local amateur radio group and hope that the hobby might help me branch out a bit. I don’t know that I have a huge interest here, but it’s close enough to other interests that I’m hopeful to find some other drifters out there also searching.

Keep your friends close. They are hard to come by.

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