There was this other time when I was in study hall talking to a friend of mine (who wasn’t in the “clique”). We were talking about games and I told him how me and some friends (the “clique”) had regular Halo and Gears of War parties and how we were actually having one that Friday. He was obviously interested and asked if he could come. I felt so totally stupid for leaving the door wide open and I was trying to find a polite way of closing it quickly. Why? Why would it be so wrong to have someone new hang out with us? I don’t know. Pack mentality I guess. I don’t think the best of us can escape it.

But cliques can be good. With that pack mentality comes protection. You grow together as a group and start looking out for each other. As apt as a person would be to tell off an outsider, the same person would most likely be more apt to tell off someone picking on one of the clique’s members. I think the door can swing both ways.

Just another example, I suppose, of why language is so interesting. Ludwig Wittgenstein had some interesting writings in that vein, talking about the fact that what a reader brings with him/her TO the text sometimes can overshadow the inherent impact of the text itself. I don’t remember him saying whether that was a good thing or bad, my recollection is that it was just a trait of reality he was observing in the context of language as a whole. It certainly seems apt here, though. My own issues with the words grew such that I lost all consideration for the author’s intent.

That intent is always a guessing game anyway, really. Misinterpretations probably account for a good many internet squabbles. And that’s REALLY easy for me to remember now that it’s over. In the heat, it so often gets lost. It’s a weakness I’ll have to keep working on.