Modern Man: The UNsocial animal.

Being your own best friend I suppose has many upsides. For one thing you never have to compromise about doing something that you don't wanna do, you never have to avoid telling yourself something that might hurt you, you never have to worry about betraying yourself, and last but not least you don't have to be understanding to yourself. Of course the downside is you become an "introvert" or a "loner" or "socially inept" or a "freak". The question to ask here is this: how much strength do you carry within urself to counter the aforementioned labels ? Would you let the comments get to you, whereby you either isolate yourself more from society, or try to be more accepting and trusting of other people without caring much about your best interest ? I think the answer is somewhere in between. The idea is to keep yourself isolated and invulnerable yet inconspicuous enough to not gather too much attention about your so called social incapability. In other words have "acquaintances" not "friends" (in the traditional sense of the word). Acquaintances come without liabilities. Words and phrases like hi, hello, bye, really?, how you doin ?, good luck with that !, dinner sounds doable, i'm going to take a rain check on that, etc can be said to maintain "civility" and a person doesn't have to mean any of it. Friends on the other hand require the use of I'm counting on you man, I need you to do me a favor, can you spot me ? , how could you forget my b-day ?, sure i can pick you up, I'll be there, you wanna take a walk ?, and other phrases of the kind - there is a sense of responsiblity and accountability, there is a fear of losing something, there is vulnerability. Maybe this is what saints and priests refer to as zen - being here and not here at the same time. You are here yet you don't attach yourself to anyone because you are aware of the transient nature of this universe. One day he/she is your best friend and overnight things change so much that you could never look at the person in the same manner. Why put urself through the pain ? Why take a risk knowing that you can't win ? Why let your emotions and your passion get the best of you? Why trust someone else with something that is so precious to you? Instead be aloof, be zen, be at peace.