Essentials for Group Participation

[jporter]

Actually, it's not like me, really, to even acknowledge that there is a
group, so focused on The Word, and all. You know- why bother to give support
to any nascent hierarchies, let alone, admit that there is only a very slim
border of reality (if at all) in which to exist outside of a group
consensus. Not a pre-school grad, and, coming from a small but disordered
family, seeking group affirmation never really occurred to me as all that
important. But there is this loneliness that seeps in from time to time...

And perhaps social skills are important, I'm beginning to think, as I
meander my way through a bio of Ben Franklin, youngest of fifteen Puritans
born to Josiah Franklin, in Boston, 1706 (1705, Old Style).

Not that I feel empowered to call for a list "constitutional convention" or
anything like that, but leafing through "The Beatles Anthology" given to me
by my son- of all people- for Christmas, I was shocked to discover that I
was not in there! Wasn't I part of *that* group? I could have sworn... The
last of my fantasies (well, penultimate maybe) stripped away by the years.
What's left?

Don't worry. I wouldn't dream of burdening you foax with such a frightful
responsibility... but between Ben Franklin and The Beatles- my "limits of
integration" for the season- it occurs to me that *the* one essential for
successful participation in a group is (surprise, surprise) participation.

And so, I thought, why not....

Happy, Happy

jody