Social Circles

Left unhindered in a social situation, a person will gravitate towards whatever group of people they feel the most comfortable with, usually based on gender, mutual interests, and similar intellectual capacity.

That’s why I’m kind of scared.

I just attended Bible Class, and after it was over, the socializing began. After a quick cup of coffee and some random small talk, I spied several of my young nieces and nephews sitting at a table with their treats, miraculously not actively destroying anything. (Note to TJH: It's a joke!) Since I hadn’t heard about their Christmas, I walked over to get the scoop. I pulled up a chair and began to engage them in a conversation both fascinating and stimulating. Just kidding. Here’s what happened:

• A brief rundown of Christmas which took less than a minute, which included the children all talking at once.
• An impromptu game developed where you see if you can “eat” the opposing players by using your hand to chomp their hands before they can chomp yours. This game had no real end and was complete with mandatory sound effects that are reminiscent of a four-hundred pound man attempting to stuff down a five pound hamburger in fifteen minutes or less. ("Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!") There was also lots of giggling, some of it by the children.
• Seeing the commotion, several other children came over to see what was going on, and ended up showing off their toy motorcycles. Everybody agreed that they were very nice.
• I used my niece’s doll and pretended to make it eat my niece’s cake. This was considered hilarious by all, so I repeated it roughly seventy-seven times, each time enjoying the same astounding level of postive feedback.

At this point I looked up and noticed that the room had broken down into three distinct groups. The ladies were all sitting together, talking quietly. The men were all sitting together, talking quietly. I was sitting at a table surrounded by children who were either in diapers or had just recently made the leap out of them, playing with a doll.

The thing is, I didn’t feel all that out of place.

I mean, I didn’t want to be sitting with the men. They would have been talking about mortgages or sump pumps or complaining that their wives talk too much and never let them watch the game.

I didn’t want to be sitting with the women, because they would have been talking about their feelings or how their husbands never listen to them. Plus they would have figured I was a spy for the husbands and would have probably hit me repeatedly with their purses.

So I ended up hanging out with the kids, and it kind of scares me. What does it say when that’s the social circle I gravitate towards? Also, what does it say that I still don’t really regret the decision, even though it involved playing with a doll?

These are perplexing questions, ones that I may not even want to have answered. So, instead I guess I’ll just look at the bright side. Nobody else would have wanted to play “Chomp The Hand” anyway, and it’s a fun game. Plus, it’s way more interesting than discussing sump pumps. As for the doll, I’m just going to pretend that never happened.