When I started working from home, I knew I would like not\ncommuting. I did not expect how much I would enjoy not being around people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do like talking with people, but I don\u2019t want to spend time\ntalking about things I am not interested in. I don\u2019t enjoy getting caught in a\nlong conversation about a TV show I\u2019m not interested in or a movie I am never\ngoing to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly that other person is into it, but I\u2019d rather be left\nto think my own thoughts. I worked from home for more than two years, and I\nreally enjoyed NOT being around people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I read my own books, and thought my own thoughts and was perfectly\nhappy. I chose a few social interactive events in the week, and kept to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the stay-at-home orders happened in March, I felt very\nready to comply. I checked all my social media outlets, made sure my library\ncards were set up. I figured it was no different than how I had already been\nliving<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The things I had previously relied on to give me my personalized\nbalanced diet of other activities were stopped. That upset the balance. I\nremember back in April I went to store for the first time. I was overcome by\nthe site of everyone\u2019s faces\u2014even though they were covered in masks\u2014I cried to have\nsomeone tell me to have a nice day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been separate from one another. I have not breathed\nthe air of people around me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For America, this has not been entirely a restful time of contemplation\nand togetherness. Almost immediately people gathered to protest things. There\nhave been continuing protests somewhere in America this whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just finished a book The Big Sort: Why the Clustering\nof Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart <\/em>by Bill Bishop. He wrote it back\nin 2007 to explore a trend that has been going on for decades, or longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diversity is a good thing. It\u2019s also an uncomfortable thing.\n I might enjoy spending time with people\nwho have read all the same books as I have, who like the same restaurants and\nmusic. But it would last long. I would get bored. It would stink like a\nstagnant pond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I need other people\u2019s perspectives and ideas. I have to\nremember they are real perspectives not just concepts. It is dangerous to dehumanize\nother people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bishop writes \u201cBeginning in the 1960s…social\npsychologists have found that like-minded groups not only enforced conformity\nbut also tended to grow more extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if a group decides the are dog people, members of the group\nwill one-up each other by expressing more and more dislike of cats. They would\nend with some very extreme suggestions, like outlawing cats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I want to avoid those extremes. My best life includes diverse, even\nclashing viewpoints. And the dogs and the cats need room to co-exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Luther King Jr., whom we celebrated this week, said\nthis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.\u201d When I started working from home, I knew I would like not commuting. I did not expect how much I would enjoy not being around people. I do like talking with people, but I don\u2019t want to spend time talking … Continue reading
I know I have both in me, Dr. King. I am trying to lean towards the good, and bring others along with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"