Did you see the press release from BBC News about the 2025 “word of the year” according to the Cambridge Dictionary? The word is parasocial, defined as a “relationship felt by someone between themselves and a famous person they do not know.” You read that right, a relationship felt toward someone they don’t know. One of the examples cited was Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce upon their engagement. I don’t have to tell people around here how wild that day was in Kansas City.
I ran across the news story around the time I had been musing on some relationships I have with people I really know. More specifically, relationships I stumbled into accidentally. Or should I say, providentially? For example, just two weeks ago today, I was giving some lectures in Pittsburgh, PA, when, during a break time I sat down next to a woman named Emily. Judging from the way she was dressed, I would have guessed she was Mennonite, perhaps Amish. Turns out, she’s part of Bruderhof, a community formed in the early part of the 20th century in Germany. Emily told me about her Jewish mother and her Christian father, who was a pastor during the rise of Hitler, how they managed to get out of the country, eventually into the United States. We’re pen pals now. Who would have seen that friendship coming?
Or how about the rabbi I met on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York some years ago? Normally, I prefer an aisle seat, but I found myself in the middle next to a man named Elie seated by the window. We struck up a conversation about nothing, the next thing I know we discovered we’re both Bible nerds. We talked for hours about Old Testament texts, but also how Jesus was a Jew. The Ultra-Orthodox man in front of us kept glancing back to see what this Jewish rabbi and Gentile professor had going on. When Hamas militants attacked in October of 2023, Elie was one of the first people I reached out to. Who would have seen that friendship coming?
I could go on and on, about my dear friend Ryan that I met on the golf course, about Barbara that I met on a sidewalk on the campus of Duke. You get the idea. These encounters shock me since I’m very much an introvert. I would rather watch a movie than engage the man seated just inches from me on a plane. Thankfully, on occasion, God drops someone into my life and for whatever reason, I take a risk.
Cambridge’s “word of the year” got me to thinking about a related word, social. They define it as “relating to activities in which you meet and spend time with other people.” That’s very different from what happens on social media. So, if I may be so bold, my nomination for 2026 “word of the year” would be social.
Feel free to talk this over with an old friend, or a new one. Your choice.
