Artistic Romance

I like people and I like making new friends. I guess because I can talk easily to strangers, others have asked me how I do it, so I've given it some thought. That's what this lens is about.

It occurs to me that it takes a long time to really know someone. As soon as I think I know them, something unexpected happens and I meet the real friend that was hiding inside.

So, what if you could 'meet' that inner person sooner? Would your relationship move along faster? Could you become closer sooner? Is that what I'm doing? Can I come up with some technique(s) that would help others to make friends easily?

I did some 'people watching' and learned that to become close friends, the two people must share some experience in common. OK, so that part is self explanatory... but if it's unusual, it's more memorable. That non-traditional event is more powerful than many ho-hum outings added together. People that don't have the 'gift of gab' can talk to each other much more easily if they have some unusual new thing to talk about. Do something different together and you create personal or inside jokes, you've now got that knowing look you two exchange and there is at least one person you know that will understand when you really need a friend.

So why wait for the relationship to evolve slowly? How about making an interactive list of off-beat, yet safe, things to do on a date or an outing... things that don't necessarily involve eating (so traditional). For a first or second date, these ideas could be the ice-breaker. For old flames, they could rekindle the excitement!

I will post some ideas that I would like to try and hope that you will add some ideas of your own so we can come back to the list any time we want another idea. A short story about how it worked out might be nice, too!