Accidentals: Pulled into Connecting

Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash

As humans, we use interests to form connections. Rather, interests bring to awareness potential connections. In some sense, connections' potential shape our networks, more than interests forging our connections.

What brings us together is common interest. When we share something, or when we have something in common, we are more likely to get a sense that we found our "tribe." Additionally, by definition, interest is a feeling we get. In this case, it is not only about something, also about someone! Having something in common acts like an invisible field that brings people together.

But, could it also be that our interests simply give us an opportunity!? Essentially, having something in common gives us something to talk about. It keeps the communication channels open just long enough for information to start flowing. It is when conversations happen, verbal or otherwise, that chemistry enacts its mysterious ways.

Time is what really forms bonds. The time in the words, rather than the words exchanged, add fluidity to our communications and energy to our networks. When we give conversations time, we start to understand each other.

Part of this dynamic is that humans are not intellectually connected. If we were, our collective mentality would be uniform. Instead, we each have very distinct identities. Our values, personalities, and beliefs, to name a few, are individually unique. When we seek knowledge about others, it is as an expression of interest, not of intellectuality, because what sparks curiosity in the first place is interest! Yet, our individuality distorts information despite well intentioned efforts. Hence, it seems that we are emotionally connected rather than connected intellectually.

We can gather that if interests are an embodiment of our emotions, that our emotions are what turn encounters into relationships. Humanity's internal chemistry not only act like ropes that pull us into engagement but also as ties that hold our interactions long enough for us to realize that there are silver strings bringing us together.

This dynamic is wildly unconscious. At the end of the day, emotions can be said to be an expression of the soul.