I’m curious to hear how people in my life think about intimacy across the various arenas of your life. For instance, obviously, there are some intimacies that people reserve for people they consider family, and people they consider “best friends,” and “partners.” But then there are people who have “work husbands” or “work wives” or other kinds of intimate relationships in work environments. And then there are other kinds of mundane intimate scenarios — like being on packed subway cars as part of a daily commute, say, or knowing your bodega owner by face but not by name — and I’m curious about how people navigate these different spheres of intimacy in your lives. Do you have hard and fast boundaries? (ie. You have a work “wife” but you’ll never kiss or be physically intimate with that person.) What happens if those boundaries are crossed? Are there exceptions? What creates social awkwardness? What maintains social ease of functionality? I would love to hear people’s thoughts on this.

First posted on Facebook on 2/16/2017.