What is it about reunion that makes it all interesting? I mean, there's always a reunion of something and someone from some-where from some time. They have reunions for primary schools, high schools universities, classes, short term courses, etc. Does prisoners have reunions? Do they go around bragging about where they were incarcerated?
"I went to Harvard, class of "99. MBA"
"I went to Texas State county Jail, Cellblock number 9, 95 to 2000, B&E (Breaking & Entering)"
Is it possible that somewhere, right now, in some prison, prison guards are putting up banners " Welcome Back, Prisoners from 1995 to 2000. We're Glad You're Out But You're Welcomed Back in Again?
Which makes me wonder, do we have reunion for our kinder garden class? Come on people, we have reunion for every single important (and non-important) phase of our lives, how can we missed out on our kinder garden years? Nothing can be more exciting than meeting up with the kid who ate his boogers (although that does stretches out into primary school ... on certain people), or the kid who became your first friend before you find out about the cruel world?
I guess that the unspoken rules to have a reunion of some sort, is that you'd have to develop a stable, concise and articulate memory of a certain period of time….in order for you to actually reminiscence about it in the coming years. Anything below 7 years old does not fit the description. Apparently, below 7 is the stage of bliss and oblivion. During that 7 early years of your life is not really real, it's not even important (if it was important, you'd have a reunion about it).
What makes a reunion so damn important and interesting? What makes us to cancel our appointments, lie to our bosses, ask for an emergency sick leave (there's always a relative who seems to be dying all the time), travel million of miles, fork out hundreds of dollars and suffer through the nagging of your spouses/companion, dragging your precious family along with you, preparing to look nice (losing a few pounds) and doing hundreds of other things that you don't normally do for someone else (or even your own family).
What is it that drives us?
What is it that attracts us to it?
In my opinion, there's a few types of people that would show up (or not show up) at any reunion.
First, there's the people that had moved on. Yeah, that's right people, we are still living in the past. These people have move on, changed address, gone, vacated, elevated, swished away (is that really a word?), let bygones be bygones. To them, everything is in the past, why bother? I mean, come on, is there anything special about meeting a bunch of people whom you had spent a considerable amount of time in your life? What do you get out of it? They're not even important. What's in the past, is in the past. You can't change any of it. You'll just be talking about old times, come on people move on, lets go, you're wasting money and precious time.
Yes folks, Elvis have left the building, nothing more but dull old memories back there. People that had moved on are no longer clinging to the past. No more looking back about past mistakes, decisions that was made, things that got away (the girl that got away….), things that should have been done ( or not done). In retrospect, people that had moved on are somewhat afraid of their past. They see something that they don't like back there.
Hey, but can we blame them? Ok, here's the thing, if someone just had a divorce, break-up or other morbid stuff that usually happens to us mortals, what do you say to them?
"Come on. Let it go, its over, time to move on"
You don't say things like
"Yup, you really screw up pal, no..I really mean it, you blew it, I guess you'll just have to brood over it for the rest of your life"
And then there's the second kind of people that would definitely show up (or not show up!); people who judges other people. If you really thought about it judging other people is in our nature. Its hardwired inside our core system, that's why they have judges (and jury) in the first place!
In terms of reunion perspective, these type of people would be wondering things like "Does he look fat? What happened to that bum? He looks ok but I bet he cheats on his wife? Do I look fat? Does he make more money than I do? His car is bigger than mine?"
