Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is, “Have You Ever Attended Your High School Reunion? Why or why not?”
Like you would to your girl
Be true to your school
Let your colors fly
(“Be True To Your School”, Beach Boys)
Well…no. I graduated in 2003: by 2013 we were all facebook friends. My high school class didn’t even talk about a ten-year reunion; it simply wasn’t on our radar. We see pictures of each other and our kids every day; we’re part of group chats where people talk about politics and substance abuse problems and getting along with spouses and share recipes. I have literally seen kids grow up on facebook, from pregnancy bumps to senior photos.The closest thing we had to a real reunion was a rally/fundraiser for a classmate who had been stricken with a rare cancer. Our class has had numerous deaths, so there have been funerals over the years — far, far more than we would expect, even if we are ‘geriatric millennials’. An attempt was made at a 20-year reunion, but it was a small group (under ten, mostly the organizer’s friends) and sadly one of the few attendees has since passed away. These days our big class event chat is mostly used to share links to each other’s fundraisers, gofundmes, that kind of thing. Robert Putnam would not be surprised. Working at the library, whenever I see class reunion adverts it’s always for classes that preceded social media: I wonder if they’ll just stop being a thing once the Boomers pass away It’s a morbid thought, but Boomers really do prop up a lot of society that people don’t realize. Mainline Protestantism, for instance, is half-Boomer.
And on that chipper note, WWW Wednesday!
WHAT have you finished reading recently? Bad Blood. A narrative history of the RFK/LBJ relationship, which was fairly acrimonious.
WHAT are you reading now? Need to focus on Angle of Repose.
WHAT are you reading next? Need to give Rupture some attention.
Reading Freely 
You might have a point about the boomers, Stephen. It’s an interesting thought. 🤔 Social media allows us all to keep in touch much more readily, leaving little to ‘catch up’ about at reunions.
Pretty much! And we’ve used our group chats to meet up with people in small groups over the years. Thanksgiving, for instance, usually sees a few of us hanging around a grill together.
Yep, kids aren’t staying in churches these days. It makes me wonder if/when the pendulum will swing and a new generation will come back after seeing the emptiness of doing things their own way for a couple of generations.
Big question. There’s some revival happening; Rod Dreher was at a pilgrimage a year or so back and it was WELL attended by French youths who were longing to find meaning again. He’ s also spoken of people seeing ‘renchantment’ outside Christianity, through pagan sources and the like. My city struggles to retain young people — even the kids from OLD families move away to Birmingham or Atlanta or other cities — so one thing our church has to think about is making arrangments for the building being maintained after its congregation has diminished to the point that it’s no longer directly capable of it. The building is over a century old, with stained glass windows that need special care, so…..it’s a beautiful burden.
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of returning to mysticism and paganism. It’ll just open the floodgates for deception during the end days.
And while every generation thinks they are going to experience Christ’s return, we’re closer than we’ve ever been before 😀
Rod Dreher argues in LIVING IN WONDER that a degree of Christian mysticism is vital to the faith. I can’t argue with it because my conversion was predicated on a series of moments that I ‘felt’, and which changed me. The Orthodox argue that western Christianity (Catholicism and the Protestant denominations which erupted from it) are too head-oriented and too little experience oriented. There are obvious exceptions like the Pentecostals, of course.
And that’s an issue you and I are probably never going to agree on. I can live with that on an individual level, but when it comes to a group like Pentecostals, I can’t. So I’ll leave it at that so I don’t put my foot in mouth 🙂
Hah! Fair enough. As far as the Pentecostals go, I think a lot of it is ginned up — the madness of crowds and so on.
Social media changed a lot of things for sure!
I have never attended one of our class reunions. We had a huge graduating class, and I feel like I see the people I want to see already. Maybe next time, if we have one. I am Gen X though, so maybe not. Lol.
My oldest sister is Gen-X (graduated in 1996) and I’m certain neither she nor her husband nor her sister in law have ever bothered!
Fellow 2003 grad, but I was homeschooled so we really never had a chance for a reunion, LOL!
My 20 year college anniversary (is that the right word?) is coming up … but somehow I don’t foresee that being a big deal for me either. The school has changed so much that going back wouldn’t feel the same (I even worked there for years post-grad) … and social media means I’m already connected to the people I’d want to see.
I’m both a good and bad alumni…I go to events in Montevallo when I can, but I’m not a member of the alumni association and don’t go to any of its events. I prefer hanging out with former professors in their offices, though at this point most everyone I studied under has retired!
Yes! That was what was so fun about working there post-grad: I was actually in the history dept, where I majored, so I got all this extra time with the profs 😀 Like you though, sadly most of them have retired (or even died, eek!) …
Funny, I have almost same title, but a different book.
And looking foward to your thoughts on Angle of Repose.
#WWWWednesday Last #book I finished: Red Bird, by #MaryOliver
#Amreading: The Rat Kings, by #VladimirProvorov
#Amlistening to: Ruptures, by #BernardMinier
#TBR Reading next: Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris, by #PaulGallico
Mrs. ‘Arris has an interesting title!
It does intrigue me. I know it’s a major classic, but have never read it, and read 2 books by Gallico before finally trying this one
Good point. High school reunions do seem to be more popular when the attraction is likely to be just to see who’s survived this many years.
PK