What Does It Mean To "Care" For Someone?

This is a hard topic to go through because it varies so much by situation, but let’s give it a shot.

I write about four-five times a week, usually about life and society and where things are headed and whatnot. If you want to subscribe, you can, right here:

Obviously you don’t have to. You can also read through the post and share it if you want. Here’s the button for that:

This is today’s. It’s about “caring.” I’ll drop the paywall somewhere down below.

We encounter any number of relationship dynamics in our life, notably:

• Us and our parents

• Us and our family

• Us and our friends

• Us and our lovers

• Us and our children

• Us and our pets

• Us and our co-workers

• Us and our neighbors

• Us and ourselves

I would argue each one of those is a different form of “caring” or “love” or “commitment” at some level. We tend to kinda gloss over what “caring” really means, though. We use the word a lot, especially in major life events (weddings, newborns, the end of high school and college), but there’s no real universal definition for it — nor could there be. So the answer to the question in the headline is going to vary by situation, age, and personal emotional capacity. I still think we can explore it a bit, though.

Friend-to-friend

Adult friendships are largely colored by life stage, age, location, type of work done at the time, kids vs. no kids, and kids’ ages.

Still, there are some generalized expectations of friendship, I’d say.

My big list there would be:

• Respect

• Trust

• Shared experiences

• Some in-person context

• Integrity

• Easy conversation, fall back into it (“like riding a bike”)

• Shared interests or backgrounds

I think the friend-to-friend dynamic underscores a lot of what “caring” means, and it’s about listening to people and not just discussing yourself, figuring out where they’re at in their lives, and being proactive about reaching out to them and seeing how they are. This obviously gets very clouded by professional commitments, bosses, kids, the need for money, and other to-do items. That’s why we’re what some call “a friendship recession.”