Whose Faulty Vision

Social Travel

Normally, when I travel, I’m pretty solitary. I chat a bit with people at hostels, but that’s about it. But on this most recent trip, I was being more social than usual. My daily activities were still mostly solitary (when I’m in “photo mode”, the rest of the world goes away), but in the evenings and the in-between times I was really pretty social. Met some interesting travelers from around the world.

Which makes me wonder whether the increased sociality that I turned to after losing Christmas is going to be permanent, or at least longer-lasting than I was expecting. I thought it was a short-term thing–just a way to distract myself from my misery. But I’m down to being miserable only about 20% of the time, and I’m still doing it.

If it is a permanent change, I’m not convinced that’s a good thing. Barbra, of course, tells us that people who need people are the luckiest people in the world. And normally I would never dream of disagreeing with Barbra, but on this one I’m not convinced. It seems to me that if I enjoy being social, but also enjoy being alone, then I’m happy either way, but if I’m moving more toward really needing to be around other people in order to be happy, then that’s one more way I can be unhappy, you know?