How to be Cool?
December 13, 2012 8 Comments
Oblivious as I frequently am to pop measures of coolth, I didn’t realise that ‘meeting people online’ — which is often a euphemism for dating and for casual encounters of the carnal kind, apart from more vanilla friendships — was the epitome of drab, dreary, left-in-the-ditch geekiness.
Oh deary, deary me. I can rustle up maybe one friend I first met in ‘weal life’ (though intimacy brewed mostly on chat applications, late at night and from the comfort of pyjamas and our own beds). The prettier flowers of my affection, likewise, were plucked from the sides of the information superhighway.
Siiigh. Whatever shall I do? Will madly fangirling Twilight, Justin Bieber and ‘organic’ cosmetic brands on FB lift me back up to ‘normalcy’?
I didn’t realize that it was unusual my dear — I can’t think of a single friend I have who hasn’t met a great deal of friends that way. Well, except for Maya — her problem is she’s a poor judge of people in general, so gets caught up with exciting yet dumb people online that she later drops.
My problem is I tend to find my online friends (and I meet them all in real life of course) tend to get dropped more easily as I don’t have classes or work or anything with them — all meetings have to be fabricated and I really could care less about putting in that energy.
Reason #612 Why I’m a Poor Friend.
I’m fairly sure it’s the same with us all. The parameter of ‘good friends’ stems from happier times when people lived close to each other, moved away a lot less frequently, and ‘community’ was an actual, alive thing instead of a sociopolitical buzzword. Look at us: how much did we know about each others’ lives when we lived a few streets away? And how much do we keep up now, despite best intentions?
Ahaha, I see what you did there sneakypants!
That was clever and rather sweet. The “happy extended family/neighborhood” for Indians is our American “don’t fence me in” pioneer romance while the noble mountains of Switzerland past inspired the Swiss to donate much to Nepal, which ruined their pizzas for years and we won’t mention lebensraum. In America, Italian immigrants kept community, Europeans dispersed, and Indians clump together with Indians, finding it exceedingly hard to extend into our extended, flexible families during the first generation. Yet we all have the impossible cousin, the great aunty, the cook’s got a cold and “did you hear” … they gossip in one corner as rishis recite mantras in another. For no other culture, I think, has the Internet so suddenly opened vast social frontiers, allowing so many to break totally free and shower us with gifts you might say. Thank you so much for your blog, your recipes, and your photos… even as you long for the home we all remember. I so echo your sentiments, we here in Boston want our Currier and Ives Christmas season; and yet ’tis true, our lives are made brighter by those we meet at the speed of light across time and space.
So as Tiny Tim (Tim@Scrooge Enterprises) says, God bless them … every one.
I generally define as “cool” whatever it is that I’m not doing; it works fairly well as a rule of thumb.
I’ve never heard a more misguided definition of the word! Really now, young lady!
You — and your partner — are the epitome of a wonderful kind of cool. I wish more people aspired to it
My ex-partner, I’m afraid.
Oh dear. I leave the blogosphere for a few months and come back with a queenly faux pas.
My… best wishes? I hope you’re both doing all right.