Dangerous Concord

Last night I was at a friends place hanging out and playing Balderdash. The occasion was a birthday, but it'd been weeks since their birth date and (it seemed to me) that was just a good excuse to socialise. It's one of our basic instincts to gather and interact, but in civilised cultures anyway we seem to need a pretext to do this. Possibly because we're too insecure to admit that we need others for their own sake. Or maybe we're uncomfortable with having to interface with people without a structure in place to keep things from going too deep or getting too real. Not that it's bad to get together and do stuff with people - our society wouldn't survive without that. And I had a great time last night; don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it at all. But perhaps, every once in a while, we could go beyond that. Donne was right, men are not islands - but we seem to giving it a good go. If we could talk to one or two people now and again it would help. I know this isn't unheard of, and maybe I'm preaching to the converted, but I find it hard, and I don't see a lot of people around me trying it either. Of course we need to be careful - when two minds meet they have the power of the grinding plates of Earth. Who knows what will come of it? And when two hearts collide it is the most dangerous concord in the universe. But what should we do? Keep our distance forever?

There is something that is required for every great venture; nothing good is accomplished without it. It is the currency of the natural world, and a precious commodity. It is Risk. Let us be bold, not with foolishness but with fearlessness - and we'll be the richest men this side of the River.