在孤獨的流行病期間，一些友誼會變得更牢固

在孤獨的流行病期間，一些友誼會變得更牢固

Marie Fiebach (left) and Kelly Schoeppner (right) found their friendship got deeper over the course of the pandemic.

瑪麗·菲巴赫(左)和凱利·肖普納(右)發(fā)現(xiàn)，她們的友誼隨著疫情的發(fā)展而加深。

For over a decade, Marie Fiebach and Kelly Schoeppner took weekly walks after dropping their kids off at school in Wichita, Kansas. The two women enjoyed the ritual, but each had four kids and busy lives, with family, work and plenty of other friends.

十多年來，瑪麗·菲巴赫和凱利·肖普納每周都會在送孩子到堪薩斯州威奇托市上學后散步。這兩位女士很享受這樣的儀式，但她們都有四個孩子，生活忙碌，有家庭、工作和許多其他朋友。

When the pandemic hit, that busyness receded, as did many friendships.

當流行病來襲時，這種忙碌消失了，許多友誼也消失了。

Fiebach, 45, had always spent a lot of time chitchatting with pals at the gym, but it closed. Schoeppner's husband was furloughed, and their oldest daughter lost her job and moved home. As the shapes of their lives changed — got harder, got stranger — their friendship strengthened. Fiebach and Schoeppner's once-weekly walk became a weekly phone call, and the tenor of it changed.

菲巴赫今年45歲，以前經常和朋友們在健身房閑聊，但健身房關門了。肖普納的丈夫被迫休假，他們的大女兒也失業(yè)了，搬回家住。隨著他們生活形態(tài)的改變——變得更加艱難，變得更加陌生——她們的友誼加深了。菲巴赫和肖普納每周一次的散步變成了每周一次的電話交談，談話的基調也改變了。

"We had a lot of conversations that were a lot deeper," Schoeppner, 47, said. "It was just a relief to know that she was there whenever I needed her to be."

“我們進行了很多深入得多的對話，”47歲的肖普納說。“當我需要她的時候，她總是在我身邊，這讓我松了一口氣。”

"Kelly became my window to the world, and I became hers, even though our worlds were much, much smaller," Fiebach said.

菲巴赫說:“凱利成為了我通向世界的窗口，而我則成為了她的窗口，盡管我們的世界要小得多。”

Fewer but deeper friendships

更少但更深厚的友誼

Isolation is a common byproduct of Covid-19; adults are reporting significant declines in mental health since March.

隔離是Covid-19常見的副產品；據報道，自3月份以來，成年人的心理健康水平顯著下降。

But some people have found that as their worlds shrank, they also recalibrated, and a few things were simpler, and sometimes even better. Many women, especially those with jobs, young kids and frenetic schedules, found they had fewer friendships, but deeper ones. They replaced quantity with quality.

但有些人發(fā)現(xiàn)，隨著他們的世界縮小，他們也在重新調整，有些事情變得更簡單，有時甚至更好。許多女性，尤其是那些有工作、有孩子、有瘋狂的日程安排的女性，發(fā)現(xiàn)她們的友誼更少，但更深厚。她們以質量代替了數量。

"Loneliness is not usually from not knowing enough people," Shasta Nelson, an author and friendship expert, said. "It's from feeling known by a few people."

“孤獨通常不是因為認識的人不夠多，”作家兼友誼專家沙斯塔·納爾遜說。“這是少數人的感受。”

The pandemic is affecting friendship in a number of ways. Real friendship, Nelson said, is based on three things. Consistency: how often and reliably friends interact. Vulnerability: feeling seen and safe. And positivity: feeling good about the interactions. The pandemic knocked out a certain kind of casual friendship, one based more on consistency — running into people at school or sports or the market — than vulnerability and positivity.

這一流行病在許多方面影響著友誼。納爾遜說，真正的友誼建立在三件事上。一致性：朋友互動的頻率和可靠性。脆弱性：感覺被看見和安全。積極性：對互動感覺良好。流行病摧毀了某種偶然的友誼，這種友誼更多的是建立在一致性的基礎上——在學校、運動會或市場上遇到的人——而不是建立在脆弱性和積極性上。

Some friendships are fracturing

一些友誼破裂了

Some friendships are fracturing beneath the strain of our time, not bringing enough positivity to continue. "A lot of relationships right now are struggling with how people are responding to the pandemic differently," Nelson said. "They feel judged, or they feel guilty, or they feel judgmental of the other person for not wearing masks or putting their kids in certain situations."

有些友誼在我們時代的壓力下破裂了，沒有帶來足夠的積極性使之繼續(xù)下去。” 納爾遜說：“現(xiàn)在很多關系都在為人們對流行病的不同反應而掙扎。”他們感到被人評判，或感到內疚，或因為對方沒有戴口罩或把孩子置于某些情況下而對他們進行評判。“

Suddenly it wasn't weird to reach out to someone you missed and tell them you wanted to connect.

突然間，聯(lián)系上你想念的人并告訴他們你想聯(lián)系他們并不奇怪。