Appointments and random opportunities

When did we get so busy?

When I was younger,
I did not need appointments to see my friends.
I went to them.
They came to me.
We were drawn together like loose magnets.

When I lived in a different place:
at college
in Sweden
in Africa
I did not need appointments to see my friends.
Sometimes I would make them anyway.
To drive one hundred miles, to find your friend is not in,
is a disappointment too great to bear easily.
But still
I went to them.
They came to me.
We were drawn together like loose magnets.

Now I am older.
Now I live in this English culture.
I need appointments to see my friends.
My life is busy, structured.
I need to diarise my opportunities, write them on a calendar.
When my time is free, it is 'catch-up': at home, at work.

I find it interesting that the only place I do not make appointments to see my friends is at work.
I drop in to a colleague's classroom unannounced.
We chat about work. Sometimes we chat about personal matters.
We do not make appointments.

Interesting.

Can I change things? Do I want to?