Forty years. 40. Years. Surely that's a mistake! It cannot possibly have been 40 years since my class graduated from Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene University)! My mind keeps wandering between denial and excitement, as we approach the time to leave home and travel to see some of my old friends...and most likely, some who were never friends of mine. Ever since I made a firm decision to go, people I knew back then, old friends, have found their way into my dreams, night time or nap time. People I haven't seen in 35 or 40 years. I know they will all have aged, but I'll just have to be gracious about it; I, of course, haven't changed a bit! I've considered trying my hand at a Confunding charm and telling them that I entered college when I was ten years old, but someone borrowed my wand, so I'm stuck.
I am old enough to have graduated a little over 40 years ago (repeat three times: I am old enough, take a deep breath, and repeat the set). I did not, in fact, graduate then, not until 1991; and I graduated from our local university, so my real graduating class was 1991, from our local university. But I will never attend a reunion for that.
When I was wavering over whether to go to San Diego, I kept visualizing people I didn't really want to see--people around whom I had always been uncomfortable, because I never knew whether they were going to be friendly or stuck up. Finally, I realized two things: First, the people who persisted in passing and pausing before my eyes were not in my class; they were a couple of years ahead of me. When I began digging in my memory banks for people who were in my class, I began to get excited about going.
Second, I am not only older, I'm not the same person I was then. I don't usually approach people the same way as I did then--What do they think of me?--but more open to seeing and hearing who they are. Besides, they have all no doubt changed, as well, for better or for worse. One of my good friends from our youth group is now in a wheel chair, a result of a nasty accident while on vacation, more than 10 years ago. Others have lost close family members. I'm sure, if I were privy to the information, I would know many others who had experienced severe hardship or catastrophic illnesses. There may be some deaths that I haven't heard about. These things have a way of pruning us, reshaping, smoothing out rough edges (sorry about the metaphoric shift).
One person I would like to see who will not be there is Jeannine, but in addition to the health issues in her household, she will be retiring at the end of this week. I dunno, I guess she didn't want to miss the party, or something. <gr> You see, there's another reality check on my age: My close friend, the one friend I've known the longest, is retiring! Oh, wait--she's taking early retirement. Whew!
So...we will leave the campus on Saturday afternoon and go north, a couple of hours, to spend a couple of days with my family, again, and then come home on Tuesday. I probably won't get around to blogging until Thanksgiving, maybe even Friday. We'll see. If I don't, I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving time with family and friends that you love. And please--not to lay on guilt--try to remember that we all, no matter what difficulties we face, still are far, far better off than most of the world. So let's give thanks, even for those things that we all take so for granted, even for the things that annoy, irritate or drive us a little nutty. Someone told me, long ago, that anything for which you can really give thanks has lost its power to defeat you. So thank God for it and ask for the insight, the wisdom, the clarity to see him, her, them, it, even yourself, through His eyes.
Happy Thanksgiving, and God bless.
