Within those sources, I find I skip over articles by Bruni and Kristol and always Maureen Dowd, but never pass by Paul Krugman, Gail Collins, and yes, Russ Douthat and David Brooks. I know the New Yorker people as if they were long time friends from high school: They are my gang--Jill Lepore, George Packer, Adam Gopnik, Jeffrey Toobin, Emily Nussbaum, David Denby, Rachel Aviv, David Sedaris, to name just my favorites.
Until they left the air, I listened to "Car Talk's" Click and Klack, Tom and Ray.
When they were accessible, I watched Jon Stewart, John Oliver and, of course, Stephen Colbert. And I miss them now.
So what does this mean about my world? I have friends in my new town, but almost no one I spend as much meaningful time with.
When you turn your attention to someone, in a regular fashion, you have done more than just spent time, but if that's all you did, that is something significant, because, as Ben Franklin observed, time is what life is made of.
A friend once remarked she enjoyed spending time together, and I took this as the highest complement. How many people can any of us say this about?
But in today's world, even in small town New England, we do not sit around the wood stove at the general store, or hang out in the coffee shop, at least I don't. I go to work, come home, work out. On weekends, there are projects. When I played baseball, I spent time with people, but that was different. My team mates and I had loads of fun, but we were careful about the subjects we visited. We wanted to be baseball friends, not locked in argument about politics or other issues.
If I'm lucky, between tasks and projects, I can steal a little time with my friends, most of whom I have never physically met. They exist inside my head.
What a marvelous world the 21st century is turning out to be.
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