Otrovert...

... for Knots in thr String.

This curious word crossed my path this week and I looked up references to it.

Essentially, ‘people who are highly social but never quite feel like they fit into groups.’ Oh good, I thought. On that assumption, no need to change my own category of introversion. I’m not highly social for one thing and I can take or leave groups, preferring quietness and a very small handful of folk in my circle. Mostly family and then people I could count on the fingers of one hand – ie: people who would be there when I desperately needed them (to which I add vice versa).

It’s interesting how humans feel the need to categorise themselves – as if the surety of knowing, of ticking the boxes, enables one to be more confident in life. Perhaps its the thought that one isn’t alone, that yes, there are lots of others who are introverts, extroverts and now otroverts and we need no longer try to fit our square form into a round hole.

And then I think about friends. That digression in my cerebral week came from a post I read on how important friends are in one’s life according to Dan Buettner of recent Blue Zones fame. He says:

The Core Philosophy of Friendship and Longevity

· The Power of Three: Buettner frequently cites data showing that having just three close friends you can laugh with and call on a bad day is worth about eight years of life expectancy compared to being socially isolated.

· Behavior Contagion: He notes that health habits are socially contagious. If your inner circle exercises, eats well, and manages stress properly, you are statistically far more likely to do the same.

· Face-to-Face vs. Digital: True connection requires offline, face-to-face interaction. Buettner advocates for a daily dose of in-person socialization, which he observed in the world’s longest-lived cultures.

Eight years extra of life expectancy from having three friends? Surely there are many other aspects to life expectancy – food, exercise, roof over one’s head, management of stress, genetic computations just for a start. I think of people I have known who have had lots of friends, lived incredibly social lives, were relatively financial, were intelligent and intellectual, who exercised and ate well, didn’t smoke, drank in moderation, and yet they succumbed to lung disease, to MND, to bowel, pancreatic, throat, prostate or breast cancer and more. Eight years extra life expectancy? I think not…

Then there was Buettner’s comment ‘…daily dose of in-person socialization…’ In that case, living on the coast, especially in winter, I’d say my End Day is just around the corner because I can go for quite a few days before I socialise at all! And yet, I feel content with how it is. Friends are wonderful, I feel privileged to have a trusted, tight handful, let it be said. But in truth, I suspect any doctor will actually tell me that longevity is more likely to be deep in my DNA.

I wonder if the secret to a long life is actually contentment? And what is contentment anyway? And why does life have to be long? Is it not enough that it’s a good life, a kind life, a calm life? Short or long?

Ah, perhaps that’s a thought for another day…

Other Things:

I mourn Sir Sam Neill. What a lovely man and what a loss to his family and friends, to society, to New Zealand and Australia. Sad day. “Moe mai rā”, Sam.

---

I came across this article the other day and thought how relevant then that I’m taking the three missing fantasies to print. However, I love my Kindle and read it far more than hard copy books. But if I read an e-book that I love, like Kathleen Hart’s Devorgilla Days, then I’ll buy a hard copy for my shelves.

---

Ballet this week is ‘hard yakka’ (‘hard work’ for those who aren’t Australian) as we realise we’re at the 6 month mark of the new and demanding class routines. Have the routines entrenched themselves in our grey matter? Well, not completely in mine yet, that’s for sure.

I was delighted to read this:

Ballet After 40: What the Science Actually Says

knowing that it’s exactly what we do in class – despite that we haul ourselves up the stair to the carpark afterward and that by 3PM in the afternoon, I for one am quite glazed.

And this week, my ankle is playing up so that defending it in class, my knee begins to misbehave and I have that moment where I really believe how much of a bitch old age is! I sit out for a few moments and massage the kneecap back into position and then join in again. I am now feeling like the old crock of the class!

---

Anyway, with the ankle-operation booked in, I walk, climb hills, eat fresh food and… yes, even have the regulation swim. Despite that we had a polar blast early in the week where the stock troughs iced over, and even our coastal garden was white with frost. On this particularly divine day, I pulled my big girl’s pants on (wetsuit) and went in. Totally worth it. If the wetsuit dries out, I may go in again before the end of the weekend.

(Turning a circle is not the best thing for Prue - hence the grunts and the exclamation about phones. Spring Bay, 2PM, Thursday 16th July - water temp has warmed and is 13 degrees Celsius. Interesting…)

Later on Thursday, he and I plus Pupsicle did a coast walk and decided the day was beyond pristine. Breathtaking really and the thought stopped me in my tracks. We had woken up that morning to a day of almost painful beauty, in an environment so far from the world’s ills. Luck? Good fortune? Fate?

I’ve been reading Matthew Harffy’s Bane of Bernicia (5 stars) and his characters’ lives are dominated by their wyrd. Perhaps ours are too… to live on this little island far from the madding world.

Whatever the case, the gratitude I felt as I looked west over the mellow gold of the sandstone point toward the sinking sun was palpable.

---

I bake a Plain Cake and fill it with lemon butter. Gosh, it’s so delish! My husband has his slice with a dollop of Greek yoghurt because he’s on the Mediterranean Diet. He says the cake has lemons which are a Mediterranean fruit and the Greek yoghurt is Mediterranean, so it fits the brief. Really, I scoff!!!!

By the way, the Mediterranean Diet dates from 1975. Unlike The Blue Zones concept which dates from 2000 and was first publicised by Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain when they investigated health and longevity in Sardinia. I always thought Buettner was the father of Blue Zones but apparently not. How many folk know that, I wonder?

---

And so how many of you are Otroverts, do you think? And do you have three friends who can guarantee you longevity in life? Or do you, like me, think it comes down to life’s circumstance and your DNA?

I shall leave you to ponder it...

Music for this week? Another Kelly Boesch piece. A little bit whacky, a lot of happy and a fine way to finish a good day.