Joke

Storytelling, banter, raillery: it's a we thing, a me thing, a ye (an archaic form of you) thing. I've been aware of it all day as I've talked to people in the downtown of Glasgow, and it's in full spate downstairs at my cousin's house where I'm staying as new cousins have joined the group.

The only thing more powerful in group formation the shared travail is humor, and the later is often how we survive (and remember) the former.

Everyone here has been telling me more about themselves and their lives upon our first meeting than I hear after weeks, months, years back home. It's not intimate, and not really reciprocal.

And it isn't because self-revelation seems to be part of the humor and energy of social gatherings. I like boisterous groups, but I miss the occasions when what is close to the heart is handled, when it comes out, like a holiday ornament and not like a football.

Perhaps the joke is that even the loudest laughers are not much different from me, style aside. Maybe we need some second person to find out who we are.