Rubber band and social circle

An old memory resurfaced hours before I close the vacation period. Last week was all about connections. To the coupled that we spent the whole week with discovering another country, as well to the link with my spouse.

Back in 2018, I enrolled myself in chatting with a McGraw center fellow. Looking back on the connction, it was rather unusual, and it felt more like therapy for the professional aspects of me rather than coaching on metric oriented strategies to boost the PhD productivity.

Nick put his hand in front of me with all of his fingers pointing towards the ceiling. Then a rubber band encircled all five fingers. He then showed to me that when move his index finger away from the others, the rubber band helped to bring them closer again. With enough repetitions the band would adjust to a more loose state to provide more distance between the fingers; or it can also break, if enough force is applied, thus loosing the active interaction between the fingers.

I see now multiple circles held by bands accross family, multip le friends circles, as well as the professional circles.

The band does not only reacts to separation between the fingers but also to keep a common demoniator thinking as to what is rubber band acceptable or in other words socially acceptable.

Why does the person who takes times off finds herself wondering if she is the black sheep because there is a teamate that never takes vacation?

Maybe, it is the desired to keep the status quo, that keeps the rubber band intact and thus the survival rate high in ancient societies. But we are safe now, from the animal predators, is it not?