A friend was talking about circles. There are established ones, where a clutch of friends with shared history support each other. Yet it can feel like there are no doors for novel people to step inside. Being on the periphery of multiple circles, just outside the inner sanctum, can create loneliness. 

 

"There are people who might invite me in, but it's hard to keep waiting to be included."

 

It rang true. I would have believed, if I had thought about it, that she was cozy in any number of groups, and yet her perception was that she was liminal. Just beyond the welcome mat. 

 

I am guilty of it. If guilt is even the right sentiment. There have been social gatherings where I sidled up to talk with a longtime friend, instead of looking around for someone who might feel ill at ease. Yet I can recall the feeling in my bones, of those kind souls who made the move to welcome me. One was at my first quilt guild twenty five years ago. Then there was the leader who greeted me at a La Leche League meeting before my first son was born. Another was the receptionist yesterday who noticed me hunting for my phone. She listened, helped look, brought me water, and asked my name. Small things, perhaps, and yet ripe for connection. 

 

Benjamin created another Venn Diagram. He has a slew of them, covering topics like elephants, and dessert, and superheroes. The one he construed last week compared robots, and the way they feel. 

 

Maybe there is a segment of our brain that longs for identical spheres. Completely in. Yet being partly in one, and partially in another can enrich our options. True, Wall-e belongs to the subgroup of curious characters, but he is also nervous. Which gives him a bridge to both R2 D2 and C-3PO. 

 

Probably all of us wrestle with the sentiment of isolation. Real or imagined, we fall for the facade that everyone else is connected, while we are marginalized. 

 

But maybe we are more interrelated than even a flat paper can represent. Perhaps heaven is like a room full of balloons and there is overlap in three or even four dimensions. Sounds like fun to me.