Lessons Learned

So, apparently I am not very squeamish. The apple I was eating mysteriously materialized a bug out of nowhere. And half of it was missing. I did not feel even a ripple of distress, other than wondering how the bug got in there in the first place, since there were no visible holes. My only thought other than that on the topic was, "Hmmm, extra protein." Then I laughed to myself.

I have also figured out something about people. If a person asks another person a series of questions about likes and dislikes and does not receive what is in his or her mind a satisfactory answer, the asker will stop asking and likely stopping talking entirely to the responder. I learned this first hand in a bar once. A guy asked me a series of pop culture questions to which I replied, "I don't know" or "I don't watch TV". After about two and a half minutes, he stopped attempting to talk to me. Here is my theory about these happenings: people like to have common interests, but more than that, they want to be around people who care about things. When I say "care about things", I don't mean "the planet" or "the whales" or "the state of public education". I mean non-altruistic, non-serious things. Like hockey, kayaking, knitting or cooking. People like people that can relax but more than disliking a goody-two-shoes, people like to know that other people can care about something that is not earth-shattering or mind-altering. They want other people to care about everyday things, common things. Because (and here's the important part), if one cannot relax and love the mundane, how is one ever to love a common, mundane person.

See what I just did there? I just blew your mind. Am I right? Probably, on some level. Am I wrong? All the time. But I have to come up with some sort of system to figure out what the hell is going on around me and thus far, this is the best I've got.

(Also, I understand and appreciate the irony of essentially saying the in order to relate to people one needs to relax and be able to live OUTSIDE of one's head, while simultaneously proving that I live inside my head. Yes, I know, irony.)