"Yet, when I see these few remaining friends, I feel something is missing between us. Maybe that disappointment is deeper than I am allowing myself to really feel and forgive. The easy camaraderie and honesty we had before has slightly dimmed, at least by my lights."
I have three friends and former colleagues from the mid-1980s. We meet for dinner and drinks three or four times a year. Two of them are retired. The other works for an outfit that did not mandate the bioweapon. All three are jabbed.
They were jabbed before our dinner in August 2021, when I announced I was going to be fired the following month for "non-compliance." They tried to talk me into compliance. Not only to save my job, but to protect my health.
I can't believe these decent, reasoning, and very sharp human beings--one of them a professed libertarian--swallowed the propaganda. Somehow, this pains me almost as much as losing the friends who no longer speak to me at all. I agree with you: we've lost something Big.
Jim, as expected, you've given us an articulate expression of pain and bewilderment. I feel it too. I hope this textual outpouring gives some closure to your grief over the death of a close relationship (the retreat center almost like a lover). I continued on with certain friendships and family relations, but the big empty space in what we can talk about now means those relationships are distinctly shallower than what they once were. When I was treated to a giant cold shoulder after I sent RFK Jr's Fauci book to family members, I discovered that reviving and maintaining those relationships would be up to me alone -- which means I now accept the empty space, as I prefer it to ending the relationships entirely. After all, they are family. But in the case of an institution, as in your experience, I commend you for cutting them off. Life has changed. Right now, whether it's apropos or not, I am reminded of the sad and wonderful final paragraphs of Kerouac's On the Road, as Sal and Dean say goodbye and move on into new phases of their lives.
James, You wrote a very verbose article about a simple fact. Once the tribe turns against you, there's not much you can do but walk away.
I have no urge or desire to be with other humans. People are interesting, illogical, emotional, and unpredictable creatures.
I suppose a "Quest for Community" happens when the members of a tribe who were kicked out of the tribe go off to start their own tribe. That was true and still is true, but where ya gonna go?
"Yet, when I see these few remaining friends, I feel something is missing between us. Maybe that disappointment is deeper than I am allowing myself to really feel and forgive. The easy camaraderie and honesty we had before has slightly dimmed, at least by my lights."
I have three friends and former colleagues from the mid-1980s. We meet for dinner and drinks three or four times a year. Two of them are retired. The other works for an outfit that did not mandate the bioweapon. All three are jabbed.
They were jabbed before our dinner in August 2021, when I announced I was going to be fired the following month for "non-compliance." They tried to talk me into compliance. Not only to save my job, but to protect my health.
I can't believe these decent, reasoning, and very sharp human beings--one of them a professed libertarian--swallowed the propaganda. Somehow, this pains me almost as much as losing the friends who no longer speak to me at all. I agree with you: we've lost something Big.
Jim, as expected, you've given us an articulate expression of pain and bewilderment. I feel it too. I hope this textual outpouring gives some closure to your grief over the death of a close relationship (the retreat center almost like a lover). I continued on with certain friendships and family relations, but the big empty space in what we can talk about now means those relationships are distinctly shallower than what they once were. When I was treated to a giant cold shoulder after I sent RFK Jr's Fauci book to family members, I discovered that reviving and maintaining those relationships would be up to me alone -- which means I now accept the empty space, as I prefer it to ending the relationships entirely. After all, they are family. But in the case of an institution, as in your experience, I commend you for cutting them off. Life has changed. Right now, whether it's apropos or not, I am reminded of the sad and wonderful final paragraphs of Kerouac's On the Road, as Sal and Dean say goodbye and move on into new phases of their lives.
James, You wrote a very verbose article about a simple fact. Once the tribe turns against you, there's not much you can do but walk away.
I have no urge or desire to be with other humans. People are interesting, illogical, emotional, and unpredictable creatures.
I suppose a "Quest for Community" happens when the members of a tribe who were kicked out of the tribe go off to start their own tribe. That was true and still is true, but where ya gonna go?