Friendship and Mortal Dread
If you want a nice dose of mortal dread, do the following:
Think of a friend or family member that you only see once or twice a year. Count the number of years until you are 80 and likely dead or close to dying.
Think of a friend or family member that you only see once or twice a year.
Multiply the years until you are 80 by the number of times you’ll see your friend.
That’s how many more visits you have with that friend.
Oof.
It pains me to think that I might only see Ben and Andrew 100 times or so over the rest of our lives.
But noticing this fact immediately spun me into the question of “How could I triple or quintuple this number? What are the barriers?”
Ben asked an even better follow up “How do we make it so we no longer count that number?” He imagined moving in across the street where we’d have hundreds of small encounters every year.
Inspired by this type of creative solutioning here are 10 different ideas of how to solve this:
Winter with us: Mary and I have a house that’s big enough to accommodate either Andrew or Ben’s family for a month.
Internships for the kids: Bring the kids down for a month long internship (or something) with the Lute-Wise’s and visit with us on the front and back end.
Start a business that has us three presenting at a conference once a year. Get the business to pay for the travel.
Pick a co vacation location once a year for the whole family
Pick up a shared hobby (music?) that requires in person attendance. There are jiu jitsu competitions, concerts, conventions, etc.
Commit a crime together then make a blood pact with a deadman’s switch that requires all three of us present or the information about the crime gets released
Get a tattoo that has a counting element (like tally marks) and set a commitment to get a line added every year with the same artist
Create a flexible spending account for all of us. If it doesn’t get used it gets donated or doesn’t roll over.
Start a game show where we are the hosts and give away money or prizes. Filming takes 1 week a year but we all look forward to it because it’s our claim to fame.
VR hang outs. Really deeply commit to cyberspace interactions and always get the cutting edge tech so that it eventually feels like we’re in the same space.
