i love seeing best friends goofing around in public. i love seeing couples laughing together. i love seeing little kids walking hand in hand with their parents. i love seeing dogs running happily back to their owners. i love seeing closeness and positive relationships, and knowing all that love is out there
OP uses he/him pronouns
enjoying our brief existence together
i think what most people fail to understand is that curating your online experience doesn't just mean blocking and filtering the things you don't like or don't want to see but that it also (and maybe more importantly) means engaging with the things you do like and want to see. if someone creates something that makes your experience better, let them know! tell them! reblog their things! you get to see/share more of what you like and they get to know that someone out there appreciates their work it's a win-win situation for everyone involved
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988 - 1992) dir. Carole Beers and Karl Geurs
to succeed in adult friendship you must remember the key tenets of child friendship:
- Play Toys
- Play Pretend
- Snack Time
successful examples from my travels:
- my SO and i have a projector. our cool neighbors have a vast dvd collection. fundamentally these are toys. we have those neighbors over for movie nights. Play Toys. more broadly shared hobbies fall into this category but it's extra fun if there's Equipment to admire and share.
- ttrpgs are obvious but invaluable examples of Play Pretend. HOWEVER your options are not limited to this. i started a local writing group and this is also Play Pretend bc we all talk about our stories together. there are many such creative endeavors in this world.
- having someone over for a meal is Snack Time. if you make a lil thing of it and eat at the table and make it nice with dessert and a fancy beverage to share it feels very grown up. and you will feel impressed with yourself for it. but it scratches the same itch as trading fruit snacks and suchlike.
of course these can be mixed and matched. most activities are enhanced by Snack Time if your friend targets enjoy breaking bread together.
and one begets the other. if you Play Pretend with someone for long enough they may eventually tell you about Toys they have and if you want to play too they'll probably let you. if they're nice.
life can be lonely when we live in separate boxes and worry about money all the time. this is what makes friendships hard, not growing older. but the antidote to isolation is connection, and the oldest wisdom we ever learn: share your toys. share your games. share your snacks.
Like it cannot be overstated how collective change is built by a collection of small, sustained individual actions. You giving what you can to one person, you helping one person when you can, you communicating with one person, sharing with one person, everything, it all adds up. That is how we build community. Its not big and dramatic and all at once. It is mundane but continuous.
Stay close to people who stay close to you.
A few days ago I discovered this poor little guy laying on the train tracks at my local station, I took it upon myself to rescue him, clean him, and reunite him with his owner.
To The Bus Driver - Jordan Bolton