Where Do You Fall?

We've got some atypical hobbies around here.

Lately I've been enjoying mulling over a little theory that one of our good friends shared with us.

Clint said that the reason he thought we were good friends as two couples, even though we were really different from each other, came from the fact that we all fall in the periphery of mainstream society. His theory is that mainstream society congregates in the center, and there's lots of others around them so it's easy for those people to find others around them with the right "combination" of mainstream interests to be friends.

Then there's people with more atypical interests. Hobbies with a less prominent following in society. We all kind of fall out to the edge or periphery of society. Out on the periphery the people are spread a lot farther apart, because the interests are so varied. So those of us on the periphery have to look a little bit farther for friends with similar interests.

But Clint's theory is that even though we are spread out farther than the people in the middle, that we as members of the periphery can actually become good friends with any other member of the periphery--no matter how different our interests--because we are all loosely connected simply by virtue of the fact that we don't fit into the mainstream circle of interests.

Need a diagram?

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that NFL and designer handbags are the only interests that members of mainstream society have. In the same respect don't limit my interests to cosplay and Star Trek. There are plenty of interests that can be shared universally by any member of society. I'm merely trying to accentuate some of the interests that define the two factions of society as mutually exclusive. Not that we can't carry on polite conversations with one another. . . I'm just talking about the people you would consider your "best" friends.

It's a pretty interesting theory.

Although, the older I get the less people I feel are actually in that mainstream category, proportionately speaking. See in my diagram the population is split about 50/50, in reality I think it's probably at least 30/60 with a lot more people in the periphery group. It's just that those sports and fashion-types are all so high-profile it just looks like that's all society is made up of.

I am now going to put this theory to the test. (I'm very scientific like that.) Jeremy was excited tonight to receive a "pre-ordered" package a whole month earlier than he was expecting!

OK really only one week, but it was still August today.

It was a greatly anticipated package.

It's called SPACE HULK, and no it has nothing to do with Marvel comics.

"Man versus alien in desperate battle!" It's a board game, based in the universe of another tabletop game he plays.

It has little men to put together and paint.

A brand new set of six-sided dice. And game board pieces. And rule books. And who knows what else.

So here's where I put my theory to the test: (must be read in a sing-song voice)Who want's to come play Space Hulk with Jeremy? He's really excited to play. . . I might make cookies for you. . .

So we'll see who Jeremy can get to come play with him, and then see where they fall on the mainstream/periphery diagram. Then we will either prove that the theory is correct and Jeremy is able to find a friend from the periphery group to come play with him. Or we will find out that Jeremy's hobbies are just too strange for friends and we will have to invent a third circle of society for complete outcasts.