The studly ladies of Jewbiquitous have got me thinking about acquaintances. They place people in the "Acquaintance Zone" (AZ) who they used to care about to some level and now don't have time for, desire for, etc.
I'm personally a big fan of acquaintances. I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people, and having acquaintances is a good way of relegating people to different "friend levels." I wasn't always that bad. As a kid, I spent summers at a sleep-a-way camp, where many people were from a different state than I. I was an expert letter-writer (this was in the early days of email before the soul sucking IM when you take out a - gasp! - pen and pretty paper and compose a letter without spell check!) and wrote to bunk mates, friends, counselors. Sometimes, I'd ask my parents for permission to make "long distance" phone calls (remember the days before cell phones and an area code mattered?) and chat with these friends for a good 15 minutes.
But then, middle school hardened my heart and I realized I'd sent more than I received. And I also stopped caring. I figured I'd keep in touch via email. But even that never works. So, having people in the AZ made sense to me back then. It still makes sense now.
There are too many people in my life who I just happened to "get rid of" as time went on, for various reasons. We lost touch and that was that. Done. Now I probably have more acquaintances than friends, but I'm ok with that. It's fun to catch up with dinner every 10 months through 6 years. And thank God for social networking tools that let me keep tabs on people who are fun to poke fun at but too boring for Google searches.
Perhaps The Pedant, who is an excellent communicator and keeper-in-toucher will rub off on me? I always wanted to continue writing letters or sending cards for special events. Perhaps one day, like one of my cousins (who took it over from one of my great aunts) I will send every one birthday cards.
Nah. Probably my laziness, which is what got me acquaintances in the first place, will prevail!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
NB: Sherbs, you are forever in my Friend Zone and not in the AZ, even if we do have difficulty seeing one another regularly. AZ, for me, is reserved for those people who are bad friends and with whom I purposefully lose touch. You, I care about seeing.
Post a Comment