The Value of Multi-Context Relationships

First day writing at large in NYC. Husband joined the subway ride, he’s meeting a recent friend at Washington Sq. Park to solidarize with NYU grad student unionization effort. He was excited about hanging out with him, continue cultivating friendships. The value of sharing experiences with others in multiple contexts came to mind.

I’ve had the feeling too. I know the power of serendipity to bring people together. You are introduced to a new beautiful person one weekend, you have a chance encounter at the coffee shop next week; something grows, doesn’t even have to be romantic. You’re both now mapped onto the mind of the other; your identities, colored. Shouldn’t be a stretch to say that sharing experiences — happening together — in multiple contexts increases intimacy between people. Some call it “traveling in the same circles”.

• TNC / Joint Perspective, Joint Attention

Tight-knitted communities like those existing in small locales (towns, villages) become intimate with each other through multi-context interaction. To see fellow townsfolk on the street, on the butcher shop, on the market, at school, at parties. Surely comes with non-idealities but what doesn’t?

I see modern dynamics fostering mono-contextual relationships, people you’ll only meet and relate to as work colleagues, twitter mutuals, or service workers. Modern life, split across a dozen unconnected contexts, lived in worlds that don’t speak to each other, individuality maximized in every single one. Never a we, a true process of fission.

Speaks to

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• Topic / Understanding Cooperation, Production of Harmony

• Topic / Ways of Socializing, Reputation Game

• Topic / Building Family: Community, Familiarity, Closeness, Kindness

• Topic / Individualism, Production of Individual