*DISCLAIMER* This is very much a freewheeling random post. Don’t read it if you want something data-driven or “productive”.

Also, none of this takes into account the fact that there are genetic traits that may or may not lead to compatible dispositions. I’m more interested in the notion of circumstance. I’m also using zero data to back up these claims. Just musing. If a number of people are trapped in an elevator for long enough, they will eventually become close, and comfortable, and even friends. When you put a bunch of young boys on a sports team together, they tend to become close friends. The majority of the people I care most about are those from my various institutions, be they schools or places of employment. What I’m getting at: I think family works because people, when given no other option, due to circumstances forcing them together, not only connect with each other, but learn to like, and to love, and to share their lives and hearts. If you have no choice but to talk to someone, and if you suffer and triumph with them, and you are both equally (or relatedly) helpless to circumstance, that binds you! At that point you have no excuse not to not only be kind, but to be friends, with the people around you. The only reason more people in the world aren’t connected is because we’re really good at making excuses for it. I don’t buy that “your social network caps at 150 people” crap for a second. I’m sorry, maybe I’m an optimist (or a social media addict). Anyway, back to life.

-K