Are you ok?
One of the things that helps me stay sane (to the extent that I can be said to be "sane". Now STFU, peanut gallery!) is... wait for it... fishing. Wait, what? I know, I know. But hear me out.<p>There's a spot where I go to fish a lot, because it's very convenient to access. Because it's very convenient to access, everybody and their cousin fishes there. Due to the fishing pressure, the fishing at this spot isn't really great, at least not for largemouth bass, which is usually what I'm targeting. But still I go. And you know what? The point isn't really the fish. It's about being outside, being near the water, having other people around but mostly not having to interact with them unless I choose to, having the ability to fish right up until dark, then start a little campfire and sit back for a while and listen to the fire crackle and pop while watching the stars come out, etc. It all helps me stay grounded.<p>Even more, another aspect of hanging out here is that it's such a "community hole" kind of place, that you get a really diverse crowd. You get white guys (me), black guys, hispanic guys, black women, hispanic women, old guys, young guys, little kids, asian guys, etc., etc. And out here, I've never so much as once seen race, gender, or age matter to anybody. We all fish, we talk about fishing inasmuch as we talk ("Hey, anybody seen any white bass starting to show up yet? The spawning run should be starting about now?"  or "You catching anything today?", or "What bait are you using?", etc.) and that's it. Some people are out there fishing for food, some are there just fishing for sport, some were born and raised in the US and are college educated, some barely speak any English at all and are possibly undocumented migrant workers, but yet at the end of the day we're all just a bunch of people hanging out on a dam by a spillway, trying to catch a fish.<p>It's good to be reminded that there are times and situations where you can throw a bunch of people together in a (relatively) small area who probably have very little in common in many ways, but yet they can be united by their humanity and by a simple common interest.<p>The moral of this story? Take up fishing, I guess. :-) Or if not fishing, at least something to get you outside, away from computers and social media and "tech stuff" for a few hours here and there.