Community

Has work replaced community as, well, community?

I am not really a very social person. I like time to myself, and as my lovely bride says (sometimes a bit too often) my ideal Saturday night is just spending time with her at home. We cook a good meal, we drink a nice bottle of wine, and that is about it. We have been together for almost nine years now, so we have passed through the limbic phase of the romance. But it is still my favorite evening, simple, calm, and relaxed.

So we don’t really spend a lot of time with our friends. We LIKE our friends, we really do, but after a long day at work, just sitting at home and being alone together is important to me.

But then who do you call when a crisis looms? In particular, when a force five hurricane is staring down your goozle, who do you want to keep in touch with?

Family, of course, and we did that. We spent a lot of time on the phone, and in text messages to local family members. Close friends, people we have known for years, and then work colleagues.

I wonder what happens when you leave a job abruptly. Someplace that you have worked at for a long time. Does it feel like you have been ripped out of relationship? Is it like you just got dumped? Can you no more control your emotions and do you want revenge so bad that you must physically be constrained?

I have no idea. But I wonder.