I've just had a good talk with my [middle- and high-] school friend Alan. We discussed all sorts of things, including love and relationships. After he left, I found myself musing that Alan has a significant other. It seems all my closer friends do, now. Ben is really the only one who doesn't. Now, on further thought, Charlie doesn't, and Daniel Davis doesn't, and Eddie doesn't, and Fred - well, Fred might. But all the local friends do - Greg, Harold, Ike - even Jacob, mild friend from LeTourneau, does. And the LeTourneau group sort of doesn't count, in this case. Perhaps because I am here, now, and they are elsewhere. Oh - Kris Karloff doesn't have a girlfriend, either, for what it counts. Or my online past-me friend. But, still, like the LeTourneaus: no immediacy. And Ben is sort of my closest friend now. I'm not sure, really. I talk with Alan a lot when I'm here and we can be together, but online, etc., I can't really connect with him. Ben is more universal, somehow, but he's not the same. Huh… castes.
Oh, by the way, I looked it up and "caste" is pronounced like "cast", not with a long "a". How disappointing - not only have I been misinformed for the past dozen or so years but now my esteem has declined. Gone is the esoteric word, replaced by some dumb homophone for a mundane all-too-similar word. Bleah.