• Increasing overlap •
[1½ MIN READ]
The run 2 weeks ago (2026’03’25’W) brought together 2 Jenkintown School District alumni who’ve been with the Growlers Group Run variously, but never together (iCandybyWangC.com and elsewhere unless otherwise stated). It’s not like it was the first time they’d ever met — Jenkintown is a compact borough and they ran on the cross-country team together as students — but Christian and Shoshana hadn’t run together since then, some 5 years ago.
(L-R: Shoshana, JRC Keith (way back), Train Dave, Jay-var, Christian, CtCloser.)
The overrun had us 2 crew members of Chinese descent comparing stories from a few more years ago than that. Shoshana was born in China, as was her sister (unrelated by birth), in different provinces. The conversation had us educating Train David and Jay-var a little about China and its regions. Without a connection through the 2 of us, I don’t suppose that the other 2 would otherwise have cared very much about the country.
Personal connections opens doors for conversations that way. We all have families, backgrounds, and origins. Those can be the basis for getting deeper with each other. Talking about those is one of my favorite ways to deepen a feeling of community in conversations — pretty much everyone can go on at least a little while about one or all of the topics. And, inevitably, there’s some cool points of overlap.
So Shoshana and I have learned things about borough connections and even geographical over numerous runs and overruns. Shoshana’s sister was born in Hunan province, the same as my daughter E (That’s the name her friends all call her, actually.). Another mutual acquaintance from Jenkintown is E’s “adoption sister.” We traveled together to China with her parents to adopt our baby girls.
Read more: A previous take (“Degrees of Connection“)
It was a pleasure and privilege to invite Train Dave and Jay-var into the overlap with us.
–CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Personal details used with expressed permission. ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (CreativeCommons.org). ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2026’04’08’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun with added caption and enumeration.
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