So I began thinking of this concept after I'd met a good friend that I hadn't seen in a few years. We'd picked it up as if we'd seen each other the day before, and even though plenty had changed, the seamless familiarity is what made it feel like there hadn't been a gap between the years. However, we'd met at a bar that I often visit that always strikes me in how dingy and divey it is (which of course is perfect with some friends). Even though I go to this bar often and know that each time it is going to be dingy and divey, there still seems to be a gap of familiarity between each visit.
But it strikes me that there is a common element between these two experiences. In each instance, there is a gap in time (of varying degrees), as well as a gap in familiarity (also in varying degrees). The thing I'm most interested in is when there is a gap in familiarity even when the object itself or the details of that relationship to the object haven't changed.
Take for instance a scenery that strikes you as beautiful even though you see it every day. It seems like this concept is a key element in defining what beauty actually is (whether it is a person, a painting, a scenery, etc.). There's that element of each time seeing something, even if nothing has changed, it sort of feels like seeing it again for the first time.
On the reverse: the opposite of the gap of familiarity can also be a good thing. As with the experience of seeing my friend. Or being able to pick up an instrument after a while and remember it "like riding a bike". It isn't necessarily a positive or negative concept, but more of a concept to use in conjunction to specify how we identify and relate to specific things over time.
This word or term I'm looking for would in context of some sort of reunion. It would be quantifiable by how large of a gap of familiarity it feels between the last interaction and the current, and possibly how long it takes to get back to the old level of familiarity. It would be contrastable to whether or not the specifics of the object or the relation to the object have actually changed. And it would be specifiable to the details of what makes the object familiar or unfamiliar to us.
I hope I could get across this concept somewhat comprehensibly. I understand it is an abstraction on other abstractions which are always hard to pin down. I would welcome any incite on a way to more directly specify this concept though.
