If reunions are about letting you reconnect with people you’ve shared important experiences or times with—in this case, my (30th) high school reunion—it’s partly powerful because you make a loop around whatever thing you loop around—the ring of your personal tree—and get to share that pause together, that moment of a-ha. Or you simply get to hug each other again. Somehow, those hugs are special; they are, in essence, rooted within us, conduits to realize our internal tree rings.
As one of the people in my high school class to pull a few reunions together, I realized this time, the reunion itself—every five years—has become a place I help to hold so that others can come together each and every time or whenever works. It’s a pretty sacred space to get to hold. It fills up with hugs.
We bring our stories. We bring memories. I’m not sure what exactly we bring.
I hope I can write something more coherent about what we might bring, but here are three good things about this past weekend:
1) As one person noted when we went to hear friends play music (a regular gig that conveniently coincided with our descending to town for reunion), “Everyone here is the same age.” At dinner beforehand, indeed there was a little sharing… of eyeglasses.
2) Sitting in a classroom during a terrific discussion about whether there’s hope for the future, from the perspective of a biologist (and classmate) about the environment and about the college student of today, I was reminded—we all were, I think—how rich classrooms can be. Listening to his observations and others’ as well, I was also reminded that learning really is life-long; the experience of that conversation was fruitful because I was sitting amongst learners age 12 to 70’s.
The particular education we shared—at a Quaker school—was enriched by such a strong value system. The longer I’m a parent to school age children the more I appreciate the simplicity and stalwartness of this in my education—and seek it out for my children in whatever ways I can.
3) There was such genuine happiness simply in reconnecting. We can talk and talk about the need to slow down and realize how much we mean to one another as people while we race through life. Even for those of us who felt we were racing in and out of our hometown in order to connect, we did stop long enough not only to stop and reconnect but also to feel how glad we were doing so.
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Saskia thought we’d gone to a big birthday party. I guess in our way, we sure did. The school even put out balloons.
