This past
weekend was what we affectionately refer to as our “30-Something Reunion”. It was a multi-class
extravaganza that encompassed the Moon Valley High School classes of 1975 thru 1980. This was the third reunion I have had
the privilege to attend and, like the other two reunions, I find myself thinking a lot about friends, youth, aging, life and
mortality.
As
a casual observer of people, I watched the giant gathering of friends as they stood in the middle of Memory Lane with no fear
of being run over – except by the memories of days gone by. Dear friends who haven’t seen each other in many,
many years squealed and hugged each and start their relationship from where it left off. Old flames chatted
and compared their lives and, no doubt, walked away wondering what might have been. Another pair or two apparently decided
to find out but I won’t go there.
Like the other two reunions I attended, I was struck once again by the magical power of friendships
– especially old ones – and how our past still has an incredible impact on our present and future.
Class reunions have a way of magically mixing these two elements into an emotional concoction that, when properly consumed,
leaves us with a profound appreciation of where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going.
During one part of the two day
celebration, we remembered those classmates, teachers and staff who are no longer with us with a slide presentation set to
music written and performed by one of our classmates, Doug Barnett. I’ve seen many variations of
this touching remembrance and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes and reminds me of this vapor we call life and how quickly
it is passing by. We just never know how long we will have our friends with us.
I guess that is what I always take away from my class reunions:
the value of good friends with mutual backgrounds and experiences and never wanting to see those relationships wane ever again.
But
here is what was really cool about the reunion. In these trying economic times, several of our classmates
paid the $95 admission for approximately 19 of our fellow classmates who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend.
The names of donors and recipients were all kept confidential. Each of those involved really neat
stories of how much it meant to them to attend.
In one such case, a classmate donated funds for two people to attend. That
person asked what the circumstances were of the recipients and I told that that one of the recipients had been affected by
a specific health issue (I told them what that issue was but, in order to maintain confidentiality, I will not reveal it here.).
The donor came up to me at the reunion and told me that he was so glad that the donation went to who it did as they
(the donor) had lost their spouse to the same illness two days before their anniversary.
How much more serendipitous could
that be?
There
are so many opportunities that each of us can take advantage of in order to enrich another person’s life.
If we do (and do so anonymously), we will find ourselves somehow equally, if not more, enriched in ways that money
can never buy.
So,
with the power of the web at our disposal, why not enrich your life – if even for just the slightest little bit –
by performing a kind, anonymous act or even reuniting with an old friend you haven’t seen in ages and pick up where
you left off.
It’s not trying to live in the past. It’s merely leveraging it to improve
your present and future. Besides, who knows what other kinds of reunions might happen?
