Reunion
It is that time of the year reunions are popping up everywhere. It maybe class reunions, family, or just some friends getting back together after years of not seeing each other. The summer and early fall seems to lend itself to these functions that seem to waning with each passing year. Some may wonder why, but others see what is happening. The phenomenon that is social media is helping stay connected in ways we never imagined, but it has also replaced actual human interaction. While social media allows us to stay connected it is more at an arm’s reach than an actual embrace of our fellow man. This vicarious method of living gives a perspective we have never known in times previous. Is it bad? Is it good? Could it be both?
If you are an individual that just wants to know what everyone else is doing, then social media is probably one of the greatest things that has been invented. If you also like having that feeling of staying connected with someone even though distance would prevent you from seeing or speaking to each other regularly then it also probably a great tool. However, if you are like myself and still feel emotional connection with humans, you probably wish you interacted with actual people as opposed to profiles and texts.
There is a Chinet tv commercial where a woman is walking in “the lost art museum”, and she comes to a display of a house with many people at it, it is the “lost art of getting together” display. When she hits the button to play the explanation it says something to the affect of, “there was a time when being social drove people to houses, not home pages.” The woman finds her way back to this time. A pretty powerful meaning behind a paper plate commercial and it holds some truth. Where did those days go? I remember I was about 4 or 5, and a bunch of people came to my neighbor’s house to help put up a pool. They had a cookout and watermelon for everyone. In college my friends and I would often grill out and invite people over. Where has this lost art of getting together gone?
There is not one answer; social media alone isn’t completely to blame. There are a multitude of factors. People are so consumed with their everyday lives and constant working it leads to burnout. I have no problem with people bettering themselves, but if you never take the chance to enjoy the fruits of your labor, what good is in all the labor? Most people get completeness from another, whether it be a spouse, children, etc, something and more often than not someone helps make us feel accomplished. This can also hold true with interaction in general. The more we interact the more we have invested in the good of all.
Mary Schimich wrote a column that later Baz Luhrman adapted to song. Baz Luhrman in his song, ‘Sunscreen’, has a ton of great insight. In regards to getting together or friendship he says this, “Understand friends come and go, but for the precious few you should on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.” This is very true. We may grow old and most people will fade from our lives, but you can never replace your childhood friends. They were there for all the times you shared growing up. Who else can remember with you the time you blew up a mailbox, arriving to prom 3 hours late, sneaking out to jump into a lake half naked?
The point is this when you get the opportunity to gather with people, don’t cast it aside, as a simple waste of time. I hear people say about family reunions, “I’ll see them next year.” About high school reunions, “I didn’t like them when I was in school, why would I now.” Or “It’s just 10 years, 15, years, 20 years, whatever the length maybe, there isn’t that much to catch up on, I’ll see them at the next one, or get up with them some other time.” Let me remind you all there is no promise of tomorrow. While I would like to believe I’ll be around for eternity it is not likely. I hear so many people talk of boredom, reach out and reconnect, don’t forget those of your past. Everyone who has ever came into your life has contributed something both good and bad, but we need others. I don’t want to look back when someone has died, and say I wish I would have called them up, seen them like I had planned on, etc. I want to be able to say I spent the time with them, I’m glad of the time we shared. We all wish for more time, so let’s take it, and let’s make it count with the ones we want to count it with. Just because time has split people up, doesn’t mean it is too late to get it back.
I will leave you with this; let’s not make the art of getting together a lost art. Let’s bring it back and in stronger fashion than ever. Let us use social media as a tool to help us reconnect and then actually see and talk to our friends in person. We may make closer friends, but we will never replace the friends that were there when we grew up. No one will ever replace our families; no matter the distance let us take the time and have a reunion with the one’s we will never forget.
M. Coty Myers
cotywrites 