There is a high quality of life with social capital and my 40th HS reunion was VERY ENRICHING.
These reunions keep getting smaller, but not our classmates. Add to that they are balding, gray and saggy. Everyone seemed shorter than I remember. Divorces have occurred since. African safaris too.
I got to bear hug a kid I always loved and a man to love now. We've tracked each other through FB. The neighborhood girl who lost her husband recently and I exchanged big hugs and memories.
2/x
We kissed on the cheek and a little on the lips and I said, "know we think about you in Arizona."
She's from a REDneck state and likes to make moonshine.
Tonight I felt valued by people I never really see. G-Man said, "I still tell people to this very day, you [SAM] are the smartest man I've ever known."
It rocked me hearing that and I was humbly grateful.
There were other examples like this and it was a love fest fairly free of politics.
All this to emphasize again how important ... 3/x
It is that we stay connected to people, and that requires an extraordinary amount of grace.
Once every five years its great to get together and talk like we knew each other as kids again.
What a great world we live in.