My first love and what I actually hoped I would do for my career was sociology. Admittedly I was probably more social that most researchers, but I fell in love with two aspects of the discipline, urban development and anthropology. My lack of aptitude in language was the deal breaker. You can do very little in sociology without a PhD. Getting the degree was not overwhelming since I love being a learner but passing the tools was out of the questions. In those days you had to be fluid in another language. Today computer is a language and I would do just fine. When I moved into social work, I took many of the concepts related to symbolic interaction and social theory with me and when I taught, I often had my students stand and represent family sociograms and the stress on even tangent relatives when there is a crisis.
Yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch at Sheila’s home and the topic of social networks came up. The PBS show, This Emotional Life, which Sheila had watched indicated that people with social networks are happier. Of course, I came home and booted up the show and will watch all three over the weekend.
I started to think about the components of the process and the differences in relationships, social support and networks. Ok, I have a number of connections on Facebook.. some I hardly have a relationship with and others very important to my life. Do they make me happy? To have a few good friends is a treasure and much like the garden, it needs water, sun and soil to thrive. I think you really know you have a great friend when they are there when you are less than your stirling self...and the definition given to be a long time .. your friend is the first person to walk in when the rest of the world walks out.... I am very lucky to have a few folks like that... and yesterday my new sneakers arrived and dear Cheryl gave me another Moroccan bag...but this time we all go in the house and not "sleep in the car".