People Are Strange

Continuing in the vein of how humans are weird, I have another thought for the books.

Sitting at a dinner table with some friends, who were all girls, conversation began to develop on how to be friends with a boy who makes advances at you, and to do so without leading him on.

We were talking about all sorts of covert operations, mind games, try-this's and try-that's and one girl, Becky, suggests in a comically obvious tone, "Or you could just say, 'Hey, I have no intentions other than to be your friend.'"  I agree with her and joke some and the rest of the table thinks it's too awkward to do that.

I was largely quiet for much of the conversation as I had been thinking.  I piped up after enough time of consideration and told a story similar to Erin's, the girl who brought it all up in the first place.  I met a girl recently who I didn't know at all really.   And I'll be a son of a gun, but after one good and meaningful conversation with this person, she now has a thing for me.  Or that's the term the kids use these days.

As I offered this to the Council of Estrogen, I struck upon a deeper point.  What does it even take for humans to become attracted these days?  I'm certainly no exception, as discussed in a recent post, to STD, or Sudden Truelove Disorder.  And it's ridiculous.  While I get hung up on a cute smile or a winning laugh, sometimes I find myself frustrated that people want to take something big out of a meaningful conversation.  I think the reason it bugs me is because it suggests that we have learned that meaningful conversations with people are uncommon, and something special because we don't have them often.  Thus, legitimate conversations seem like a huge deal, and that bugs me.  If meaningful sharing is grounds for romance, then you and I are meant to be, because I discuss some pretty serious stuff here.

I suppose overall it bums me out, because humans have come to think that good conversations are something to cherish.  I think they're meaningful enough to be cherished, but many times things are cherished because they're rare.  I think that's the case with this situation.  We feel attracted to those who we have deep conversations with because everyone else is so abstract and distanced from everyone else...that's sad in my opinion.  I feel like we all keep to ourselves too much.  Meaningful conversations with beautiful strangers should take place everyday.