I saw something today at the coffee shop and it just… it really got to me. There was this older man, pretty old, like sixty-something, trying to talk to some people, and they just slowly, almost imperceptibly, started shifting their chairs away from him. Like they were trying to make themselves smaller, less available. And he just kept trying, kept smiling. And it was just so clear, the gap. The way we instinctively, without even thinking, decide who’s 'in' and who’s 'out' of a conversation. Is that weird? Does everyone feel this? I think about it a lot, how easy it is to just… disappear from someone’s view, even when you’re right there. It made me think about how we all just want to connect, right? Like, that’s the main thing. We want someone to see us, to listen to our little stories, to just… be there. And when that doesn’t happen, when you put yourself out there and people just pull back, it’s like a little piece of you just shrivels up. I guess that’s just how humans are, we’re always looking for our tribe, and sometimes that means excluding others. But watching him, it felt so much bigger than that. It felt like a fundamental loneliness, a thing that just… happens to us all eventually, maybe. I don't know, maybe it just hit home because sometimes I feel like I'm doing the same thing. Trying to talk, trying to connect, and just getting… nothing. Or worse, getting that polite, slow retreat. It makes you wonder if you’re becoming invisible already, if you’re already that person everyone shifts their chairs away from. It’s a strange thing, isn’t it, how much we need other people to just… *see* us. To feel real. And what happens when they don’t? What happens when you’re just trying to be a part of things, and everyone just keeps moving further and further away?