We have gaps. There are gaps between you and me. Each individual is different and thus has some gaps because we have different likings, share different perspectives and views and have different personalities and characters.
Yet, sometimes we find ourselves easily mix with our own cliché, a certain type of people or even with people we don’t share much common. This is what I see as the link we have with them. The population is countless. But somehow we manage to know a very small subset of people in our life. If this is not due to the link, then how could we explain it better?
The link is not a constant factor. It can get stronger or weaker depending on both parties and the causes of the interactions. That is the reason why it is likely for us to be closer with someone after experiencing something together. This is because we tend to associate the experience with this person and hence bonds both sides stronger.
My dad is a pretty reserved person. He likes to get close to us like friends but he is always not taking the initiative. The only time he did that was when he was initiating an effort to build a closer father-son relationship with my little brother. Well, my brother is the youngest in the family and there’s a big age gap between him and my father. My dad used a very old tactic. He wanted to pass on his hobby of collecting stamps to my brother. As if he’s passing his business and skills to his son. This is what we usually observe in Chinese families of the olden days. That’s right; my dad is a traditional dad too. *lol* Anyhow, if you know my brother well, you won’t be surprised that the little brat has only 3-minutes heat for everything he does, except playing computer games and lego! *lol*. To me, this is a funny pair of father and son. Yeah, so back to the stamp collecting thingy of my brother, he actually lost the interest after half a year or so. My dad was still trying to raise his son’s interest. But my brother was just not responding much. I saw the disappointment in my dad’s eyes.
You know what I did then? Well, I was trying to link them up. I started to collect stamps for both of them. Each time I went home, I would take out the new collection I got from other people and from elsewhere to my brother, hoping that he’d take a glance at them. Well, I’m sorry to announce here that I still haven’t succeeded in doing so. So I switched my target to my dad. Now I’m pleased to tell you my dad is delighted that at least one of his children is paying attention to one of his hobbies. Since then I’ve actually been really collecting stamps and being the middle person to pass them to my dad.
No, I don’t regard stamp collection as my hobby. Well, you can’t expect a lazy person keep on updating her collection, can you? But I do keep an eye for stamps from different countries, for my dad (and my bro, hopefully one day). Last week, FA brought me a stack of stamps from her country. I was very surprised because I have never told anyone here that I was collecting stamps. I guess there was one time that I asked for a stamp on an envelope from someone and apparently FA was there and she remembered that I collected stamps. So now I have an additional supplier for stamps and most importantly I feel glad that now FA and I can have something more to interact. How could you not be grateful to such a friend who actually remembers what you said even for just one time?
Today we had a floor pre-christmas coffee party. It was initiated by a few of us but slowly extended to the entire floor. It was another surprise that we had representatives from each laboratory to participate and help out for the small party. The feeling was great because the bond was really drawn. There was more crosstalk occurring now between different labs.
It is certainly our fate to know someone out of the zillions and zillions of human beings. But what makes the fate or the link lies on our own hands. I’m not saying we should artificially make the link happens. Small events can really make the gap narrower. Sometimes they even happen unexpectedly. My dad was artificially putting an effort trying to bond with my brother, but I ended up being close to my dad through this artificial stimulation (stamp collection). And through my involvement in assisting my dad and my brother, I was delighted to find out that FA is such a nice pal (though passing her unwanted stamps to me doesn’t sound any big deal at all, it is certainly a nice gesture of her to remember something I just casually mentioned to others very long ago event though I couldn't remember when was thatl). Well, it’s the thought that really matter, ya know? As for bigger occasions like organizing an activity will definitely gives us a chance to interact with others better. Who knows maybe we will talk about this event or activity years later and laugh about it right?
You know what? It takes a bit of a link for you to find my blog out of that many and read this entry in particular. You must be lucky. No? Nevertheless, I really feel lucky to have you as my reader! *grin*
♥ every page of my imagination
