Social batteries

Still thinking about community stuff and Imperfect wrote about repairing social batteries. I've long conceptualised socialising as a batteries idea and it's been really helpful for me. My social batteries do not hold an awful lot of charge. The only person they don't deplete with is my wife. Presumably that is why she is my wife. It would be hard to live with someone who exhausted me. The only other person who comes close is my sister and presumably that's because she's my sister and also my best friend. The niblings, who I adore, are exhausting both physically and mentally. Spending time with them fills up a different kind of battery. My battery of believing in purity and wholesomeness and the future. A lot of the variables are obvious. The better I know someone and the more I like them the longer the battery lasts. The better I feel in myself in that moment - physically, mentally - the slower the battery drains. The environment, known or unknown, comfortable or uncomfortable. The…