Thursday, October 2, 2008

Renewing old friendships

It's always a strange moment when you see someone you haven't seen for many, many (make it decades!) years. That's what happens when you go back to a high school reunion. We mostly didn't know each other without squinting at name tags. We had to dig for things to talk about -  the past - all the escapades we shared and classes we were in. We danced to the music of our era, consumed food and wine, laughed, the photographer snapped the required group picture. Some of us were very ill, some wealthy, some not so wealthy, many divorced, some widowed. We all bore scars, visible or invisible. Realizing that, we began to recognize each other. Not for the fresh-faced kids we'd been but for the seasoned actors on our own individual stages we had become. 

And so we parted, promising that we wouldn't let it be so long before we got together again. It was a necessary lie.