I have to admit, I haven’t left the shell of my comfortable existence very much lately. Since moving into the place that I’m currently in at the beginning of September, I haven’t once spent a night anywhere other than in my own bed up until the night of Christmas Eve. I was invited to spend the night and Christmas day with my girlfriend’s family, most of whom I hadn’t even met yet.

Sleeping somewhere other than in my bed wasn’t uncomfortable in and of itself. It was a bundled package which included other events, such as meeting a respectable number of new people (~10), getting all kinds of friendly attention from an almost equal number of their pets, visiting 3 entirely new places these new-to-me people and their pets lived in, and otherwise being completely out of my element for a period of approximately 30 hours.

In all of that, I have no complaints. I actually had an enjoyable time. I keep forgetting that I have that quality. I’ll explain. I’m an introvert. I spend most of my time lately in my living room with my laptop in front of me. Leaving the house is not something I actively seek out opportunities for, and I’m generally happier not having to be involved in social functions where I know less than 2 people, but I was invited. I agreed to go and spend time with her and her family instead of stay at home by myself ’cause, let’s face it, not even I’m that anti-social.

And, for once, I didn’t even hesitate to agree. She’s invited me to one or two previous family functions, but I hummed and hawed my uncertainty and skittishness before eventually declining. I felt guilty almost immediately, but I also felt relief. I don’t like that I tend to be so nervous and shy, but in this instance, I wasn’t going to let that stop me from finally biting the bullet and meeting everyone. Sure enough, I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

The only dissonance I felt and can discuss, however, pertains to differences in world views. We all know the social etiquette advice warning people to avoid bringing up religion or politics during family functions. That wasn’t really an issue in this particular adventure, but I’d say there was something like it afoot.

I am open to the idea of Panspermia which is the theory that life may have arisen elsewhere in the cosmos, and bits and pieces of that life could have hitched rides on asteroids and other things in space we too often call “debris” and/or “materials”, ending up all over the place, including Earth. Or like in the opening to Prometheus. Cool. Or even like on Ancient Aliens.

Or maybe not. I don’t know.

And that’s my point. I sure as hell don’t know everything about everything, but I’ve heard a lot of different ideas. I like ideas. Nay! I heckin’ LOVE ideas! But… they’re just so weird when other people talk about the same sorts of things. It’s not as easy to connect to people with some of the same weird ideas as me as I thought it’d be. I mean, sometimes it’s great. Other times, like recently, I find myself hearing things that I partly agree with mixed with other things, hard to place things, which have the effect of turning me off from the conversation.

For example, I can get excited about ideas and pop off all kinds of ‘what ifs’, but when I hear someone else discuss the same things less from a speculating and theoretical standpoint and more from a “here’s how it is” point of view, I withdraw.

I feel cognitive dissonance each and every time I hear an opinion presented with the same authority one might use when presenting a fact, even if I happen to almost fully agree (‘almost’ because, if I completely agreed, I’d assume my opinion was based on fact, and that, therefore, their’s  likely was as well. I am aware that that isn’t always true). I’m too long winded and reliant on the typed word to formulate an effective, balanced and fair response in the event that I think someone is mostly right when sharing their thoughts in person, but that they might do well to keep an open mind. Just in case.

What I can say is that it is, nevertheless, a thing of beauty to hear new voices with varying degrees of conviction in a number of things I don’t normally hear people discussing, whether or not I agree.