If aRb and bRc then aRc

I remember back to my days in my Discrete Mathematics class. We talked about transitive relations. A relation R on a set S is said to be transitive if for all a, b, c in S, if aRb and bRc then aRc. Now that I have gotten my geek bravado out of the way, why don’t I make my point. Why aren’t all the relationships that we have transitive?

When I’m in the Dominican Republic this isn’t the case. Transitivity is everything. When you are friends with someone and you meet someone in their close circle then you are automatically a part of that circle. You get all the benefits of it and all of the responsibilities as well. I can call at least five different people and have a free place to stay in Santo Domingo, and they will take me all over the country and feed me until I burst. Yet there is that added responsibility that the next time that I visit, I will have to go visit all of them and visit all of the people who I met when I visited them last. It is a daunting challenge, but it is quite rewarding.

I’ve been lucky though. Pretty much all of my good friendships now started in a transitive nature. There is something rewarding in being able to let your guard down with no pretenses. You get all that bullshit in the beginning out of the way, and just let it all out there right away. And, for some reason, maybe just dumb luck, I haven’t gotten screwed over yet. And there are people who I have known for only a few months who it is like I have known for years. And who would have thunk that important bonds in our lives can all be boiled down to “if aRb and bRc then aRc”.