Interact, though a perfectly good common-useage word, is also physics jargon for two particles with certain characters and trajectories that converge until they feel each other’s fields of force, then either collide or veer off; in either case, their characters and trajectories have been changed.
-Ann Finkbeiner, The Jasons: The Secret History of Science’s Postwar Elite
Perfectly good common-useage word, perfectly good physics jargon; both accurately describe how we affect one another. Reminds me of another quote I quite love that conveys the same sentiment, this one by Carl Jung:
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
It’s been a…difficult week, transitioning from Santa Cruz to home, from a chaotic and loud, full life to silence and single-ness. I’ve filled my time and space as best as possible, and in some ways I am more pleased with the results than I could have hoped to expect. But in other ways I’ve kicked into a bit of a moody spiral; I have been transformed, and the question is whether or not that remains a positive thing. In any case, my character has changed.