Kurt and I met up with some neighbours when we 
went shopping in the supermarket. 
Funny how you don't see someone for ages, and then 
you come across them in the supermarket, and 
just talk and talk for ages! 
We probably spent half an hour, at least,
standing there on either side of the aisle,
catching up on all the things that had been 
going on in our lives in the past six months 
- and these people only live a few doors up our road... 

It's not the first time that sort of thing
has happened to me.  Supermarkets are definitely not just places for buying food.  They're social venues 
- another modern day communications forum. 

I could wonder that I'm not a particularly 
neighbourly person, but I am always there to help 
if, and when, my neighbours need me. 
They just never seem to ask, or to let me 
know what's going on, so I can step in to help; 
And how can you get the inside information on things 
if you don't really have any local gossips visit 
to keep you updated? 
All my local information threads went dead
the day my nosey next-door neighbour
moved to another suburb. 
Suddenly, I was without information on 
my neighbourhood at all! 

It's not that I'm not interested in other people's lives, 
or in being friendly and sociable. 
I nod to them, and talk to them and say hello, 
if and when I see them.
That just happens to be few and far between. 

Once upon a time, people did little else with their lives 
- just went to work, came home, and socialised 
with neighbours who might even have been relatives. 
That was a very long time ago. 

In modern times, we are far too busy doing things, 
having lives of our own, travelling much further, 
getting involved in leisure activities and avocations, 
and so much more outside of our work arena that 
there just isn't time for neighbours, let alone friends, 
or often even family, these days... 

Time passes, and suddenly you meet up with a neighbour, a friend, or even get an out-of-the-blue phone call from a relative and it acts like a wake-up call:

"Geez, I haven't seen you in ages! How long has it been? My god, has it been that long? Surely not?  Oh, we'll really have to catch up some time.  What's happened?
Oh, nothing much out of the ordinary..." 

Why do we say that?  Nothing much out of the ordinary... 
Have we lost the ability to fill in on the mundane details of life? Whatever happened to: 
"Well, Johnny had three fillings, Betsy scraped her knee,
Alan mowed the lawn when it was three feet long..." 
When we don't see people for so long in between, 
we tend to think we have to give them
some impressive list of our feats in the interim 
and, if there aren't any we say: 
"Nothing much has happened."

Actually, I love hearing people talking about 
the ordinary facets of their lives.
It makes me feel intimate and befriended,
that  they might share such mundane aspects
of their life with me.  

So, why can't I do the same? 
Surely not a need to impress? 
Maybe a fear that if I sound too boring 
they may not want to know me? 
Or, perhaps, (dastardly of dastard), I don't want to 
give them too much info in case they start 
to feel too friendly and intimate with me, 
and expect to drop over any old time... 
I mean, I AM busy, you know...

Hmmmmm... 
Yes, and it takes time to rest and relax and recover 
in preparation for the next round of activity, too,
you know.

Oh well - just as well we have supermarkets.