Chance Encounters

Here’s a common scenario for you:  You’re walking down a hallway, or street, or a store aisle, or in the mall, or whatever venue you happen to be walking in, and suddenly see someone that you know.  Now, this isn’t someone you dislike, and don’t want to see.  This is an accquaintance or even good pal of yours that for some reason you haven’t seen in a while.  I think that all of us have those kinds of friends.

You know what Im talking about, right?  These are friends that you don’t really call, and who don’t really call you anymore, not necessarily because you don’t like them, but because your two social circles seemingly fail to intersect on any other points other than you and them.  There are certainly friends that you have a feeling are compatible with your friends, anothers that really just aren’t.  It’s a difficult-to-explain concept that anyone who has friends seems to understand completely.  It’s just one of those “social instincts” that you seem to understand.

Now, back to my scenario.

When you see this friend of yours, the two of you almost immediately are able to engage in conversation, as if there really hadn’t been much of a break.  It’s as if, no matter how long it has been between your last meeting, your conversation never really ended.  You ask about the goings-on in each other’s lives, but then you’re right back into the thick of news, giving opinions, and because you respect one another, you take each other’s words into real consideration.

Then, because one or both of you has somewhere to be, you go your seperate ways, often with the phrase “We should do something sometime” to cap off the conversation.  Now the reality is, despite whatever intentions that either of you might actually have, very rarely does either start the ball rolling to actually initiate a second meeting.  Instead, we just fall into step, into our normal routine, content with handling the day-to-day goings-on in our own lives, and we forget about that chance encounter.

But if we do that so often, then why do we even state such an intention at all?  Is it simply a part of the social norm?  Or is it just because we honestly want to follow through on those intentions, but our human weaknesses make it so that we forget, or realize that doing so is just too much work?

I don’t know.  I’m just observing here, and I don’t claim to have a solution.  But I do believe that we should really consider the things that we say, and wonder a little bit if we actually plan to do the things that we intend to do, or if we just ignore the chance encounters that we have, the opportunities to rekindle the relationships that we once had.

I’m not one to believe in fate, but I do believe in opportunity.  I believe that when a door opens for us, we should really consider taking advantage, and if there aren’t any negative consequences, then we should do it.  Life is not living unless we are striving to make it so.  Just waking up in the morning does not constitute taking advantage of the day.

Take a chance when it comes your way, because who knows?  It could be that that’s just what you needed.

- Kyle

~ by Karratti on Thursday, 18 December, 2008.