How many friends do you have?
Damn, I must be a genius then! Though thankfully I donโt talk to pigeons (I do my dog, but I think he is more advanced than a bird) and unless it can be restored over times of drought, am far from a virgin.
I have many friends and even more acquaintances.. I'm very social...
I have very few real friends, but several acquaintances, at this time in my life. I have way more now than I ever did when I was younger though. I very much prefer to be alone, most of the time, but I do get the bug to be social from time to time, and I enjoy sharing adventures, live music events and activities with others. -- So, since I have more friends/acquaintances now that I used to, I guess that means I'm losing my intelligence? Could be! Haha!
My definition of 'friend' is fairly strict (perhaps no one meets it) -- "Someone who I can say ANYTHING to and hear ANYTHING from without losing my temper or self-confidence".
A more sociable way of putting that is "Someone who knows EVERYTHING about me, and still likes me anyway"
I know it is not socially acceptable to not use the 'friend' terminology, but others are really 'acquaintances'. ymmv
@Fred_Snerd bocce? Now that's something I don't hear often.
My life! I have lots of acquaintances, people I interact with for various reasons. And I have many people who need me for help for certain things in their life. But I have and have never had someone who wanted to really know me or even try to understand me. Being alone is just so much easier than always being wrong or misunderstood.
@Barnie2years I have multiple times commented that misunderstanding is typically incredibly hard, and real understanding is typically incredibly hard.