A LACK OF DEPTH

By inclination I am a social eater, but I hardly ever eat with other people anymore.
Partly this is due to my entirely non-existent love life and my limited social life.
Part of it is because I've realized that I do not have particularly much in common with many of the people I know.
With some of them, there is absolutely no overlap whatsoever.
It is better to eat alone than with strangers.


My social malaise was made clear yesterday evening when we were drinking farewell to a departing colleague who had been with the company for twelve years. A number of us headed out for cocktails after five.
Clinking glasses, jokes, and pleasant chatter around the table.
I listened, but did not take significant part in the conversation.
Their interests are not the same as mine, their lives are quite different.
We have very little in common, and I do not really know them.
Given our dissimilarity, there is neither need nor any inclination to change that.
I'm sure most of the people now working at the company consider me a queer sort of fellow, if they even consider me at all.

There are only five people in the San Francisco office who also came over from the old building eight years ago, and almost nobody left to talk with.
Our Hong Kong office has many more people who have been at the company as long, longer even, but I've never met them, and likely never will. In fact, I don't even know the people outside Ops, International, and Finance.
Other departments in the company used to be much more interesting and vibrant, but there have been changes and departures; the folks presently staffing those desks are somewhat unknowable.

Finding someone with whom to have a discussion is rare.
I am fortunate that there once were several such people at the office.

I am beginning to think that the world is becoming a duller place.


Either that, or I simply need to find good conversational company.


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