Lawrence Toppman
A friend categorizes high school reunions this way:
The 10th reunion is for telling classmates, "Look what a great job I have." The 20th is "Check out my kids!" The 30th is "Yeah, this Mercedes is my second car." The 40th is "See? I didn't get fat!" (Hmmm...that's this year. Too bad I can't go.) The 50th is "Wow! I am livin' high in retirement."
He didn't specify a theme for the 60th, but I suppose it would be, "Hey, I'm not dead!"
So what's the idea common to all of these? I have to impress people, especially if they thought they'd never BE impressed with a schlub like me. But why should that matter?
He's probably a shade too cynical: Some of us go to reunions simply out of curiosity, to see what became of cronies with whom we haven't kept up. But self-image hangs over most of us like the sword of Damocles, and we do spend a lot of time wondering what other people think of us, especially our outside appearances.
I should be past that at 57 -- and I am, mostly -- but that's a hard thing to ignore completely, unless you're a saint or an ascetic. I mean, the elderly Gandhi probably never worried about whether he'd gotten too thin. But I bet his former classmates were saying, "Mohandas, man -- that dude's a stick."
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9 years ago
1 comments:
my 35th Hs reunion was so so much fun- spouses didn't want to attend, it was casual, we all had been humbled by life in one form or fashion, and we were happy to just be together, the boys acted like boys and the girls were happy to be flirted with. it was fun and innocent and far from ego stroking or one upmanship. The 40 or so who came spent time we each other even thought we didn't hang out together years ago. so glad i didn't miss it. GO !!
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